Influence of L-threonine on the growth, structural, optical, mechanical and nonlinear optical properties of tartaric acid single crystal

Single crystals of pure and L-threonine added tartaric acid (LT/TA), organic nonlinear optical (NLO) materials were grown from their respective aqueous solution by slow evaporation method. The crystalline nature of the grown crystals was confirmed by powder X-ray diffraction analysis (XRD). UV-Vis-NIR absorption and transmission spectra revealed that the lower cut-off wavelength was around 281 nm and the crystals exhibited high transmission over visible and near IR region. The presence of the functional groups such as O–H, C–H, C–O, C=O in the grown crystals was confirmed by FT-IR analysis. CHN analysis was carried out to confirm the presence of L-threonine in the grown crystals. Microhardness study on the crystals revealed that the hardness number H_v increased with the applied load. The growth pattern of the crystals were analyzed through etching analysis from which the etch patterns in the shape of ‘step-triangle’ were observed. The second harmonic generation (SHG) properties of pure and L-threonine doped tartaric acid crystals were confirmed by Kurtz-Perry powder technique.