Growth and characterization of third order nonlinear optical material: Isatin

Isatin, an indole derivative, is a bioactive and nonlinear active material with broad range of applications in synthetic, biological and clinical activity and optoelectronics and photonics. Isatin single crystals were grown by the solution growth method. The grown crystals were characterized by single crystal XRD, UV-vis-NIR, FTIR spectral analysis, dielectric and thermal studies. Kurtz and Perry powder technique reveals the absence of second harmonic generation. The estimations of third order non-linear optical properties like non-linear absorption co-efficient (β), non-linear refractive index (n2) and susceptibility [χ(3)] using Z-scan technique confirm the third order NLO behaviour of the material and these results indicate that the crystal exhibits saturation absorption and self-focusing performance.