Optical, thermal and structural characterization of an NLO crystal, l-arginine perchlorate

The growth of optical quality single crystals of l-arginine perchlorate C6H14N4O2, HClO4 (abbreviated as LAPCl), having dimensions 20×8×2 mm3, is reported. Crystals were grown from its aqueous solution of pH 8 at constant temperature by solvent evaporation technique. The grown crystals were characterized by single crystal X-ray diffraction analysis, Fourier transform infrared and UV-VIS-NIR spectral studies. Thermal stability of the crystal is investigated using thermo-gravimetric analysis. SHG efficiency of LAPCl is found to be 3.12 times that of quartz.