Synthesis,growth and characterization of L-proline dimercuricchloride single crystals for frequency conversion applications

A semi-organic nonlinear optical L-proline dimercuricchloride (LPDMC) material has been synthesized. LPDMC single crystals were grown from aqueous solution by a slow cooling method. Good quality single crystals of size 19×6×3 mm³ have been grown over a period of 3 weeks. The grown crystals have been subjected to single crystal X-ray diffraction analysis to determine the cell parameters. The title compound crystallizes in the triclinic system with a noncentrosymmetric space group P1 and with unit-cell parameters a=7.2742(4) Å, b=9.4472(5) Å, c=10.4767(6) Å, α=108.621(3)^°, β=107.260(2)^°, γ=97.353(2)^° and volume=631.51(6) Å³. Optical and dielectric properties of the crystals have been studied. The thermal stability of the crystals was determined by thermogravimetric analysis/differential thermal analysis. The second harmonic generation efficiency of the crystals was obtained by the classical powder technique using a Nd:YAG laser and it is found to be 2.5 times that of potassium dihydrogen phosphate.