Synthesis, growth and spectral, optical and thermal characterization studies on L-Tryptophan p-nitrophenol (LTPN) single crystals for NLO applications

•Crystals of L-Tryptophan p-nitrophenol (LTPN) are grown by slow evaporation technique.•The crystal system was identified as monoclinic from single crystal XRD studies.•The material was characterized by FT-IR, 1H NMR and UV–Vis–NIR spectra.•The crystal was found to be thermally stable up to 163 °C from TG/DTA analysis.•The NLO efficiency of the crystal was estimated to be 1.25 times higher than KDP.

The novel nonlinear optical single crystal of L-Tryptophan p-nitrophenol (LTPN) has been successfully synthesized by taking the appropriate amount of L-Tryptophan and p-nitrophenol. The single crystals have been grown by slow evaporation solution growth technique. The single crystal XRD studies confirmed that the grown crystal belongs to the monoclinic system. The various functional groups presented in the crystal were confirmed by FT-IR and 1H NMR spectroscopic studies. The absorptions of the grown crystals were analyzed using UV–Vis–NIR spectral studies. The thermal analysis was performed to study the thermal stability of the grown crystals. The second harmonic generation behavior of L-Tryptophan p-nitrophenol crystal was tested by Kurtz–Perry powder technique.

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