A comparative study on the effect of l-tartaric acid and sodium bicarbonate on the growth and characterization of KDP single crystals

Potassium dihydrogen phosphate (KDP) is one of the efficient inorganic single crystals employed in second harmonic generation (SHG) conversion applications. Present work describes the growth and characterization of optically transparent single crystals of KDP and KDP in presence of two different concentrations of l-tartaric acid and three different concentrations of sodium bicarbonate by slow evaporation solution growth technique at ambient temperature. FT-IR analysis did not reveal any main vibrations of LTA or NaHCO3. The UV-Vis-NIR study suggest that the crystals are highly transparent in the region 373-1200 nm and percentage of transmittance slightly increased in case of KDP crystals grown in presence of 0.1 M% sodium bicarbonate. Improvement in SHG efficiency was observed in KDP grown in presence of 0.1 M% l-tartaric acid. Thermal stability of the KDP grown in presence of impurities showed marginal increase when compared to pristine KDP.