Growth and characterization of l-arginine fluro phosphate—a new additive for fluent growth microbes

Abstract l -arginine phosphate monohydrate is a promising nonlinear organic crystal for higher harmonic generation in place of the conventional potassium dihydrogen phosphate and is a challenging material for laser fusion experiments. The major and inevitable drawback is the formation of microbes for growing bulk single crystals. In this work, l -arginine fluoro phosphate was synthesized by adding 0.25 and 0.75 molar concentrations of HF and ortho phosphoric acids in l -arginine. The inherent properties of microbes and photo-induced decomposition were successfully prohibited for more than 50 days due to the presence of fluorine. No microbes were observed when the solution was kept at open atmosphere. The same solution was used for the growth; crystals of identical morphology were obtained. In addition, no tapering effect and coloration were seen. The characterizations like powder XRD, FTIR, UV–VIS–NIR spectroscopy and TG/DTA were carried out. The second-harmonic generation efficiency was confirmed by using Kurtz and Perry method.