Growth of L-asparagine monohydrate organic single crystals: An experimental and DFT computational approach for nonlinear optical applications

Good optical quality of L-asparagine monohydrate (C4H8N2O3.H2O) organic single crystal has been grown by adopting natural slow evaporation process at room temperature from aqueous solutions. The lattice parameters obtained by powder X-ray diffraction data revealed orthorhombic crystal system of the harvested crystal. The morphology and planes of the crystal have been identified. The molecular vibrations and functional groups have been specified by Fourier transform infrared (FTIR) spectroscopy studies. Energy dispersive X-ray (EDX) study has been availed to find out the elements constituting the crystal. Scanning electron microscopy, (SEM), provided the surface morphology of the crystal. The dependence of dielectric properties on frequency and temperature have been investigated and the electronic polarizability (α) has been determined. UV-vis spectral analysis shows that the crystal possesses good optical transmittance in the visible part of the energy spectrum. The optical band gap and the Urbach energy have been determined from lower absorption edge. Third order nonlinear susceptibility χ(3), nonlinear refractive index (n2), and linear susceptibility χ(1) have been calculated by Miller's generalized rule. The first-principle computation of band structure of electrons and the electron density of states have been discussed, which suggest that the crystals possess direct band gap. Density Functional Theory (DFT) with B3LYP function by Gaussian09W software was utilized to calculate HOMO-LUMO energy gap as well as non-linear optical parameters namely, linear polarizability (α), hyperpolarizability (β and γ) and dipole moment (μ) of L-asparagine monohydrate crystal. All the findings prove that L-asparagine monohydrate is a promising NLO crystal.

Non-linear optical properties of polystyrene and polyvinyl alcohol composites with 4-methoxy-1-naphthol

The analysis of the NLO properties of 4-methoxy-1-naphthol (4M1N) reveals that this molecule has the value of polarizability tensor, α, more than 340% greater than that obtained, at the same level of theory, for urea molecule. This improvement grows to 500% when the second-order hyperpolarizability is considered. Calculations performed within LR-PCM-B3LYP/6-311+G(3d,2p) model proved that embedding of 4M1N in the polymer matrix significantly improved these results suggesting applications of 4M1N as the cheap and effective NLO material. The molecule was also studied, both theoretically and experimentally, to determine its full vibrational characterisation and structural description. Calculations were performed with HF, MP2, SVWN and B3LYP methods, in two, varying in size, basis sets, to find optimized structures, conformational isomers and UV–VIS, IR and Raman spectra. The accordance of simulated oscillation and absorption spectra with experimental ones is very good; IR values are slightly red-shifted. NBO charge distribution analysis was made to generate frontier orbitals and find most reactive parts of the molecule.

An Efficient Ultrasonic-Assisted Synthesis and Nonlinear Optical Property of Donor (D) -π-Acceptor (A) Chalcone (DDFP)

3-(3,4-dimethoxyphenyl)-1-(2,5-dimethylfuran-3-yl)prop-2-en-1-one (DDFP), is prepared by the equimolar ratio of 1-(2,5-dimethylfuran)ethan-1-one and 3,4, dimethoxy benzaldehyde under ultrasonic irradiation. Structure of DDFP was established by the FT-IR, 1H and 13C-NMR spectroscopic methods and elemental analysis. The nonlinear optical properties of this dye using the z-scan technique with a cw argon ion laser at 514.5 nm are studied. Both the closed and open aperture z-scan data is used to estimate the nonlinear refractive index n2 and the nonlinear absorption coefficient β respectively. The measurements are carried out at five concentrations as well as at five laser powers. The values obtained are relatively very high and vary linearly with concentration. The studies on optical limiting behavior of this dye are also reported here.