Investigating the structural and mechanical behavioral properties of semi-organic nonlinear optical single crystal: L-arginine tetrafluoroborate

A semi-organic nonlinear optical material L-Arginine tetrafluoroborate (LAFB) was synthesized as single crystal using Slow Evaporation Technique. Various properties of this material were analyzed to make it suitable for NLO applications. The structural behavior of the material was determined by single crystal XRD and found that the crystal has orthorhombic structure and was synthesized with P212121 space group. The High-Resolution X-Ray Diffraction (HRXRD) study was conducted to determine the change in the lattice parameters resulting from strain, defects or by other means in LAFB material. The diffraction curve analysis show that the grown crystal consisted of interstitial type point defect. The Shock Damage Threshold (SDT) measures the stability of the compound against shock, the analysis exhibits that under Mach number 2.2 up to 10th shock no significant cracks were observed in the crystal but damage area of the crystal was increased. The mechanical behavior of the sample against highly intense laser was analyzed through Laser Damage Threshold (LDT). The calculated value of LDT was to be 0.75GW/cm2 for 1 pulse per second whereas it decreased to 0.57GW/cm2 for 10 pulse per second. To explore the mechanical properties of the material, Nano indentation was carried out, by which the values of H0=131.548MPa and E0=4.38769GPa were obtained.