A study on the growth, optical, thermal, dielectric, laser damage threshold and mechanical properties of amaranth dye doped thiourea single crystals

Pure and 2 mol% Amaranth dye doped L-Alanine Thiourea (LATU) crystals were grown by slow evaporation technique. The cell parameters and crystallinity of pure and dye admixtured LATU crystals were confirmed by single crystal X-ray diffraction, powder crystal X-ray diffraction and high resolution X-ray diffraction analyses. The doping of the Amaranth dye in the grown crystal has been confirmed qualitatively by the FTIR spectroscopy. The optical transparency of the crystals was identified from the UV-vis-NIR transmission spectrum. The laser damage threshold value significantly enhanced for Amaranth dye admixtured LATU crystal in comparison with pure LATU crystal. Thermo Gravimetric Analysis shows that the thermal stability of the crystal increases with dopant concentration. The crystals were further subjected to other important characterizations such as dielectric measurement, micro hardness and NLO studies. The improvement in Second Harmonic Generation efficiency of doped crystal has also been reported.