Studies on the growth and characterization of a new nonlinear optical copper guanidinium sulphate single crystals

Single crystal of semi organic nonlinear optical (NLO) material Copper Guanidinium Sulphate (CGS) of dimension 15X10X10 mm3 was grown by slow evaporation growth technique at room temperature. Single crystal X-ray diffractometer was utilized to measure the unit cell parameters and to confirm the crystal structure. The structure of the compound was confirmed by FTIR spectral analysis. The UV-Vis-NIR result shows that the crystal has a sharp cut-off at 330 nm and is nearly 75% transparent over a wide wavelength range enabling it for optoelectronics application. The optical energy gap of CGAS was found to be 4.86 eV. The microhardness data suggest that CGS belongs to a hard material category. The various mechanical properties fracture, toughness, brittleness context and stiffness constant were evaluated. Thermal properties of CGS crystal was investigated using TG/DTR analyses, which reveals that the material does not decomposed before melting. The resistivity and conductivity of the CGS crystal were found to be 6800 nm and 1.47 X 10-4 sm-1 respectively. The dielectric response of the sample has been studied in the frequency range 1 KHz ? 10 MHz at room temperature. Kurtz powder technique confirms the second harmonic signal generation in the sample.