Growth and improved properties of single crystal α-LiIO3 doped with amino acids

Abstract

In this study, the effect of doping the amino acids L-arginine and L-nitroarginine on α-LiIO3 single crystal were presented. Bulk crystals were grown both from solutions doped with L-arginine and L-nitroarginine and from pure solution of α-LiIO3.When doped with L-arginine and L-nitroarginine the optical quality of the crystals was improved and growth rate was increased. These grown crystals were studied by single-crystal X-ray diffraction, IR and UV–Vis spectroscopy, Vickers microhardness, diffuse reflection, and second harmonic generation methods. Studies of microhardness and nonlinear optical activity showed that the properties of α-LiIO3 crystals were improved in the presence of L-arginine and L-nitroarginine. UV–Vis transmittance was improved in the presence of L-arginine (range 370–800 nm) and L-nitroarginine (range 290–370 nm). The second harmonic generation activity of the crystals α-LiIO3 grown with L-arginine (1.16 times) and L-nitroarginine (1.18 times) dopants is higher than that of pure α-LiIO3. The energy of the band gap increases by 1.2 times in the case of arginine dopants, and it decreases by 1.37 times in the case of the nitroarginine dopants, compared to that for the pure α-LiIO3.