Crystalline perfection, spectroscopic investigations and transport properties of trisglycine zinc chloride NLO single crystal

Bulk single crystals of trisglycine zinc chloride have been grown from aqueous solution by slow cooling technique. Single crystal and powder XRD analyses confirmed orthorhombic crystal structure with non-centrosymmetric space group Pbn21. High resolution X-ray diffraction results have established that the quality of the grown crystal is quite good for device fabrication. The crystal was characterized by FTIR and NMR spectral analyses. Optical absorption studies show that the material has very low absorption in the wavelength range 240-2000 nm. The analysis of absorption coefficient in the absorption region reveals a direct band gap of 4.21 eV. The crystal possesses remarkable thermal stability up to 229 oC. Photoconductivity studies of the grown crystal revealed the positive photoconducting nature. The grown crystal exhibited considerable hardness anisotropy with Vicker's hardness tester. Dielectric constant and dielectric loss were calculated by varying frequencies at different temperatures.