Growth and characterization of copper zinc hydrogen phosphate single crystals and study of its thermal, optical, dielectric, and NLO properties

A novel and good optical quality NLO single crystal of copper zinc hydrogen phosphate (CuZnHPO4) is grown by gel technique in silica hydrogel media. Both single crystal and powder X-ray diffraction analysis found that the orthorhombic crystal arrangement with space group Pnma and the predictable lattice parameters are a = 10.51 Å, b = 18.9 Å, c = 5.05 Å, and α = β = γ = 905. Thermogravimetric analysis is used to perform this thermal stability of the crystals that have been produced. SEM and TEM images reveal that plate-like morphology and further plate-like growth were observed on some plates. UV spectra results reveal that the absorption of the grown crystal was found in the visible region and suggest that it can be useful for NLO applications. With increasing frequency, both the dielectric constant and the dielectric loss reduced. Moreover, the grown crystal had high conductivity and the activation energy of 0.426 eV. Photoconductivity studies of CuZnHPO4 revealed the positive photoconduction nature of the crystal. Kurtz–Perry powder SHG test was employed to determine the SHG efficiency. The estimated SHG efficiencies are 19.2 mJ and 52.6 mJ for KDP and CuZnHPO4 crystals, respectively. The results suggest that the SHG efficiency of CuZnHPO4 crystal is 2.73 times better than KDP single crystal.