Study on nonlinear optical properties of 2,4,5-trimethoxy-4′-bromochalcone single crystal

•Good quality crystals of TMBC were grown by the slow evaporation solution growth method.•Powder SHG efficiency of this material is 1.8 times that of urea.•Laser damage threshold for TMBC crystal was determined to be 3.98 GW/cm2.•The NLA and NLR coefficients of the sample were estimated to be 1.20 GW/cm and –7.33×10−6 GW/cm2, respectively.

A new nonlinear optical (NLO) organic crystal 2,4,5-trimethoxy-4′-bromochalcone (TMBC) has been grown by a slow evaporation solution growth technique (SEST) at an ambient temperature. The crystalline powder of the grown crystal was examined by X-ray powder diffraction and the lattice parameters were estimated. TMBC crystallize in non-centrosymmetric orthorhombic system with space group P212121. The TGA/DTA studies show that this crystal is stable up to 154.07 °C without any phase transition. The grown crystal was optically transparent in the wavelength range of 474–1100 nm. The laser damage threshold of TMBC crystal was determined to be 3.98 GW/cm2. The second harmonic generation (SHG) efficiency of the crystal was measured by the classical powder technique using Nd:YAG laser and was found to be 1.8 times more efficient than reference material, urea. Third order nonlinear parameters were measured by employing the Z-scan technique.