Comparative investigation on slow evaporation solution technique and Sankaranarayanan-Ramasamy (SR) method semi-organic Piperazinium Tetrachlorozincate Monohydrate (PTCZM) single crystal for optoelectronic applications

The unidirectional < 002 > Piperazinium Tetrachlorozincate Monohydrate (PTCZM) crystal of dimension 14 cm length and 2 cm diameter was successfully grown by the Sankaranarayanan-Ramasamy (SR) method. The grown PTCZM crystal was subjected to Single crystal X-ray diffraction (SXRD), Powder X-ray diffraction (PXRD), High-Resolution X-ray diffraction (HRXRD), UV–Visible NIR, Fourier Transform Infrared (FTIR) analysis, Photoconductivity, birefringence and Z-scan analysis. The structural properties revealed that the PTCZM crystal belongs to a monoclinic crystal system with a space group P121/c. The high crystalline perfection and lower defect density are confirmed using High-resolution X-ray diffraction (HR-XRD) and chemical etching analysis, respectively. The UV–Visible-NIR results show that the SR method-grown PTCZM crystal has 8% higher optical transmittance value compared to the SEST grown PTCZM crystal. The structural–functional groups were identified by Fourier Transform Intra-red (FTIR) spectroscopy analysis. The negative photoconductive nature of PTCZM crystal was investigated by photoconductivity analysis. The optical homogeneity of SEST and SR method-grown crystals was measured by the Birefringence method. The third-order nonlinear optical (NLO) properties of the grown crystal such as absorption coefficient, refractive index and susceptibility range values estimated by the Z-scan technique suggest that the grown crystal material PTCZM can serve as a promising candidate for nonlinear optical devices.