Crystal growth and physico-chemical characterization of semi-organic [C4H12N2] ZnCl4·H2O single crystal for laser applications

Optical high-quality semi-organic piperazinium tetrachlorozincate monohydrate, [C4H12N2] ZnCl4·H2O (PTCZ), single crystals were grown by conventional solution method. The structure of grown crystal was confirmed by the single-crystal X-ray diffraction (SXRD) analysis. The material phase purities and its various (hkl) planes have been confirmed by the powder X-ray diffraction (PXRD) analysis at room temperature. The different functional groups were confirmed by the Fourier transform infrared (FTIR) spectroscopy. The optical quality of the PTCZ single crystal and band gap energy have been identified by the UV–Vis–NIR spectral analysis and also calculated refractive index of the material. The thermal stability of the PTCZ single crystal was investigated by TG–DTA. The hardness-related properties were analyzed by microhardness tester. The dielectric properties have been measured on the grown single crystal and the electronic polarizability value has been calculated with various theoretical approaches. The etching was carried out on the grown crystal to find the dislocation density. The crystal atomic perfection has been investigated by the high-resolution X-ray diffraction (HRXRD) or Rocking curve (RC) analysis. The Z-scan measurement has been carried out to find third-order optical susceptibility (χ(3)) of the grown single crystal using solid-state laser (640 nm).