Growth, morphology, optical, thermal, mechanical and electrical studies of a cesium chloride doped l-alanine single crystal

A cesium chloride doped l-alanine (LACC) nonlinear optical single crystal was grown successfully from an aqueous solution by employing the slow solvent evaporation method. The LACC single crystal appears as a square as viewed along the crystallographic a-direction. The crystal structure was determined by single and powder X-ray diffraction. The presence of the dopant was confirmed from an energy dispersive X-ray analysis. The UV-visible-NIR spectroscopic study of the crystal shows that the crystal has a good optical transparency over a wide spectral range 240-1083 nm. It has a lower wavelength cutoff at around 215 nm. The optical band gap of the crystal was calculated, and it is 5.64 eV. The optical parameters have also been calculated. The second harmonic generation (SHG) efficiency was measured by the Kurtz and Perry powder method. The SHG efficiency of LACC is 0.85 times that of potassium dihydrogen phosphate and 3.85 times that of l-alanine. The crystal is thermally stable up to 248 °C. The dielectric constant of the crystal is moderate. The low value of dielectric loss reveals the good quality of the crystal. Photoluminescence, mechanical, activation energy, and ac conductivity studies have also been presented.