Investigation on the growth, spectral, thermal, mechanical, electrical, laser damage threshold and third-order nonlinear optical studies of 4-acetylanilinium perchlorate (4AAPCl) semi-organic single crystal for optical limiting applications

Single crystal of 4-acetylanilinium perchlorate (4AAPCl) was obtained by slow evaporation technique. The grown 4AAPCl crystal characterized by single-crystal X-ray diffraction and powder XRD confirms that the crystal belongs to monoclinic system with the space group P2₁/c. The functional groups present in the crystal were analyzed using infrared, Raman and NMR spectral studies. The optical absorption properties of the grown material were ascertained by UV–visible NIR analysis. The crystal has an emission peak in the green region and higher laser damage threshold of 3.72 GW/cm². The electrical properties of the grown crystal were measured from the frequency and temperature variations of the dielectric profile. TGA reveals that the 4AAPCl crystal was thermally stable up to 190 °C. Microhardness test showed that the grown crystal is soft in nature. The linear polarizability (α) and first-order hyperpolarizability (β) related to NLO activity of the crystal have been also calculated. The optical limiting action and third-order optical nonlinearity of the grown crystal were accurately measured using a standard Z-scan method.