Crystal growth, structural, optical and dielectric studies of ammonium p-toluenesulfonate

Ammonium p-toluenesulfonate single crystals (AMPTS) were grown by a slow cooling solution growth technique. The unit cell parameters and morphology of AMPTS crystal were found out by single crystal X-ray diffraction study. High-resolution X-ray diffraction study revealed the crystalline perfection and the absence of structural grain boundaries. UV-vis-NIR transmission studies revealed that the AMPTS crystal is transparent in the entire visible region with a lower optical cut-off wavelength of 278 nm. From the thermogravimetric and differential thermal analyses, the melting point of AMPTS crystal was found to be 145 °C. The single and multiple shots laser damage thresholds of AMPTS crystal were found to be 4.08 and 3.18 GW/cm2 respectively, for 1064 nm wavelength of Nd:YAG laser radiation. The relative second harmonic generation efficiency of AMPTS was found to be 0.7 times that of KDP. The three independent dielectric tensor components ε11=86.56-44.32, ε22=83.80-41.44 and ε33=82.03-42.67 were calculated from the dielectric measurement studies.