Determination of crystalline perfection, optical indicatrix, birefringence and refractive-index homogeneity of ZTS crystals

Single crystals of the semi-organic non-linear optical material zinc tris (thiourea) sulphate (ZTS) were grown by slow evaporation solution growth technique. The crystals were characterized for crystalline perfection and optical homogeneity using high-resolution X-ray diffraction (HRXRD) and optical interferometric techniques. The FWHM of 6 arc sec in HRXRD rocking curve shows the good crystalline quality. Transmittance of similar to 75% shows that the crystal is free from volume defects. Conoscopy was used to assess the optical quality and investigate the optical indicatrix of the grown crystal. Birefringence values of the crystal along the three principal crystallographic axes were measured using birefringence interferometry. Mach-Zehnder interferograms exhibit good refractive-index homogeneity of the grown crystal.