Growth and optical, thermal, mechanical and surface morphology studies of semiorganic nonlinear optical material: Dichlorobis (l-proline) zinc (II) crystal

•Dichlorobis (l-proline) zinc (II) (DCBPZ) is an organometallic compound.•DCBPZ single crystal was grown by slow evaporation technique.•Thermal stability and meting point were analyzed using thermal studies.•Highly optical transparency was observed in the crystal.•The NLO result obtained show that the SHG efficiency of DCBPZ is found to be twice that of KDP.

The organometallic nonlinear optical material Dichlorobis (l-proline) zinc (II) (DCBPZ) was crystallized using solution growth technique. XRD data reveal that the grown crystal belongs to orthorhombic system with space group P212121. The crystals were characterized using UV–vis–NIR, FTIR and NMR spectral studies, SEM–EDAX analysis and Atomic force microscopy (AFM), thermal and microhardness studies. Photoconductivity measurements were made to understand the response of the grown material to the visible light. The SHG efficiency of DCBPZ was also measured using Kurtz and Perry powder technique. It is observed that the NLO activity of DCBPZ is found to be twice that of KDP due to improved linear and nonlinear optical properties of the material.

Graphical abstract1H NMR spectrum of DCBPZ crystal.Figure optionsDownload full-size imageDownload as PowerPoint slide