Investigation on the crystal growth and characterization of an organometallic non-linear optical crystal – Antimony potassium tartrate

Abstract

Single crystals of antimony potassium tartrate were grown from aqueous solution by slow evaporation technique. The grown crystals are characterized using single crystal XRD studies, powdered XRD studies, FT-IR spectroscopy, optical transmission and thermal studies. Single crystal XRD reveals that the crystal belongs to orthorhombic crystal system with the space group Pca21. The powdered XRD and FT-IR spectroscopic studies confirmed the formation of antimony potassium tartrate crystals. The optical transmission studies show that the crystal is transparent in the entire visible region. A cut off wavelength of 284nm in the UV region is determined UV–vis spectral studies. The thermal stability of grown crystals and the dehydration and decomposition nature was estimated using thermogravimetric analysis (TGA). The non-linear optical (NLO) studies confirm the generation of second harmonic signal generation in the grown samples.