Dislocations, microhardness and optical studies on glycine potassium nitrate crystal

Single crystals of glycine potassium nitrate (GPN), a semiorganic nonlinear optical crystal, of dimensions 15×12×4 mm3 were grown in a period of 10 days. The defect content present in the crystals was estimated by chemical etching technique. The results indicate that the average dislocation density is about 4.1×103/cm2. The UV-Vis. studies indicate that the crystal has a wide transmission range. The Kurtz powder test indicates that the second harmonic generation efficiency of GPN is 2.5 times that of KDP. The load-hardness curves for GPN were studied over the load range 10-100 g. The anisotropy in hardness was studied using Knoop indentation technique.