Influence of metal dopants (Cu and Mg) on the thermal, mechanical and optical properties of l-alanine acetate single crystals

Single crystals of pure, Cu2+and Mg2+ doped L-alanine acetate (LAlA) were grown successfully by slow evaporation technique. In the present study, to improve the device characteristics of LAlA crystals, metal dopants of Cu2+ and Mg2+ were incorporated into the pure crystals. The grown pure and doped LAlA crystals were confirmed by X-ray powder diffraction studies. The pure and doped crystals were characterized by Fourier Transform Infrared (FT-IR) and Thermal studies. Absorptions of the grown crystals were analyzed using UV-Vis-NIR studies which revealed that these crystals possess minimum absorption from 250 to 1800 nm. Further, it was found that the optical properties were enhanced by the incorporation of the dopants. Hardness, dielectric and photoconductivity studies were also carried out for the pure and doped LAlA crystals. Nonlinear optical studies of pure and doped crystals were carried out and it revealed that the dopant (Cu2+ and Mg2+) has increased the efficiency of the pure LAlA crystal.