Barium nitrate doped Itaconic acid single crystal: A promising third order NLO material for photonic applications

This research work discusses the effect of doping barium nitrate in itaconic acid on structural, thermal, and optical properties of the itaconic acid crystal. The single crystal of barium nitrate doped itaconic acid (BNIA) was grown by employing the slow evaporation solution growth technique. The investigation has been made by subjecting the title compound to various instrument techniques. The lattice parameters obtained from a single crystal differ from the parent crystal and confirm the formation of the titled crystal. The purity of the crystal is proven from powder X-ray diffraction analysis. Confirmation of the presence of functional groups was done by FTIR analysis. The dependence of hardness number on load indicates the hard nature of the material. The UV-vis-NIR transmission spectrum revealed that the grown crystal is optically transparent and has cut off length of 330 nm. From TGA/DTA investigations, it is observed that the BNIA crystals have thermal stability up to 170° C. The Z – scan technique was employed to understand the third order nonlinear optical nature of BNIA single crystals.