Growth, structural, optical and thermal properties of an organic NLO material: l-Argininium hydrogen squarate

l-Argininium hydrogen squarate (LAHS) is an organic nonlinear optical material grown by slow evaporation solution growth technique. The crystal structure was confirmed by single crystal X-ray diffraction analysis and the crystal system is identified as triclinic system. The thermal stability and decomposition process were studied by thermogravimetric analysis (TGA) and differential thermal analysis (DTA). The crystal is stable up to 238 °C. The optical transparency range and lower cut-off wavelength of grown crystal have been identified by UV–vis–NIR spectroscopy method. The existence of second harmonic generation (SHG) signal was observed using Nd:YAG laser with fundamental wavelength of 1064 nm. The SHG efficiency is compared with potassium di-hydrogen phosphate (KDP) and urea.