Growth, optical, mechanical, dielectric and theoretical properties of picolinium maleate NLO single crystal

Nonlinear optical single crystals of picolinium maleate (PM) were grown by slow evaporation method. The grown crystal was subjected to single crystal X-ray diffraction analysis to confirm that the crystal belongs to the monoclinic crystal structure with space group P21/c. The optical transmission range of the grown crystal was measured by UV–Vis–NIR region with the lower cut-off wavelength as 330 nm. The optical bandgap is found to be 3.75 eV. Mechanical strength of the grown crystal was analyzed using Vickers microhardness tester. Dielectric constant and dielectric loss of picolinium maleate are measured in the frequency range from 50 Hz to 5 MHz at different temperatures. Further, electronic properties, such as valence electron plasma energy, Penn gap, Fermi energy and electronic polarizability of the grown crystal have been estimated.