Investigation on the growth, structural, nonlinear optical, electric and dielectric properties of L-tartaric acid-nicotinamide single crystal

An organic nonlinear optical single crystal of L-tartaric acid-nicotinamide (LTN) has been grown by slow evaporation of the saturated solution at constant temperature of 45 C. The grown crystal is subjected to single crystal X-ray diffraction analysis to identify the space group and unit cell parameters. The crystalline quality of LTN has been investigated by high-resolution X-ray diffractometry (HRXRD). The powder SHG study demonstrates the phase matching characteristics of the materials. The laser induced damage threshold data indicate the moderate quality of the developed sample to with stand laser radiation. The dielectric response of the sample is studied as a function of frequency and temperature. The ac conductivity properties of the sample are also reported. ______________________________________________________________________________ INTRODUCTION The search and design of highly efficient non-linear optical (NLO) crystals for visible and ultraviolet (UV) region are extremely important for laser processing. High-quality organic NLO crystals must possess sufficient large NLO coefficient, transparency in UV region, high laser damage threshold power and easy growth with large dimension [1]. Organic materials attract much interest to physicists, chemists and material scientist because of their superior performance such as large NLO coefficient, and ultra-fast nonlinear response than their inorganic counterparts. In this connection, the study of the molecular packing and hydrogen bonding in L-tartaric acid and its derivatives is relevant to the development of approaches in crystal engineering, especially, related to the field of nonlinear optics [2]. The history of tartaric acid has long been associated with the most important discovery in the field of stereochemistry. It is a naturally occurring dicarboxylic acid. Its industrial applications are broad and include pharmaceutical and P. Ramesh Kumar et al Arch. Appl. Sci. Res., 2010, 2 (6):223-231 ______________________________________________________________________________