Influence of MnCl2 on the properties of an amino acid complex single crystal-l-arginine perchlorate (LAPCl) for optical limiter applications

Abstract

The slow solvent evaporation technique has been employed for the synthesis of l-arginine perchlorate (LAPCl) single crystals. The grown crystals are doped with 1, 2 and 3 mol% of MnCl2. The Powder X-ray Diffraction (PXRD) analysis confirmed that the pure and doped crystals belong to the orthorhombic crystal system with non-centrosymmetric space group P212121. The incorporation of dopants has been confirmed by Laser-Induced Breakdown Spectroscopy (LIBS) and Energy Dispersive X-ray Analysis (EDX). The modification in the linear optical properties has been analyzed by measuring the cut off wavelength, band gap, Urbach energy and the refractive index of the pure and doped crystals. The changes in the nonlinearity of the LAPCl have been studied by open aperture Z-scan technique and found that two-photon absorption (2PA) coefficient increased with increasing the dopant concentration. The dielectric properties, electronic polarizability and thermal properties of the pure and doped crystals are also studied.