Growth and characterization of some organic and semiorganic amino acid based nonlinear optical single crystals

Abstract

Materials having non-linear optical (NLO) properties are fundamental in processes of acquisition, modification, storing and transmission of information through photons. Actually, since the seventies, chemists of materials have devoted themselves to the synthesis and characterization of molecular and supramolecular species showing NLO activity in the solid state, in solution or as films. The correlation between structural and NLO properties are not clear, although it is well known that the absence of centrosymmetry is necessary for dipolar molecules to have solid state second order NLO activity. There is currently lot of interest on nonlinear optical (NLO) properties of materials, since they provide valuable information about important aspects of matter. Single crystals of oxides, semiconductors, ferroelectrics, magnetic and optical materials are involved in large industrial applications such as optoelectronics, microprocessors and memory devices and for understanding the fundamental properties of new materials. Hence, crystal growth and characterization are of vital interest for many areas. With progress in crystal growth technology, materials having attractive nonlinear properties have been reported. This has enabled the commercial development of single crystals with promising NLO properties including potential applications that lie in the fields of high density data storage, high-resolution printing and spectroscopy. v The second harmonic generation was the first nonlinear optical effect ever observed in which a coherent output beam emerged and it led to the development of recent inorganic NLO materials such as Lithium Niobate (LiNbO3), Potassium Titanyl Phosphate (KTiOPO4), Potassium Dihydrogen Phosphate(KH2PO4), Lithium Iodate(LiIO3), and#946;-Barium Borate(BBO) and semiconductors like Gallium Arsenide (GaAs).