Growth and characterization of organic 4-chloroaniline single crystals for nonlinear optical applications

The organic 4-chloroaniline single crystal was grown by the slow evaporation solution growth technique using acetone solvent. The structure and the lattice parameters of the grown crystal were analyzed by single crystal and powder XRD studies. The functional groups present in the grown crystal were identified by using FTIR and FT-Raman analyses. The optical (UV–Vis–NIR) studies reveal that the grown crystals cut-off wavelength is observed around 327 nm. The linear optical parameters such as band gap, refractive index, extinction coefficient, optical conductivity, skin depth, and Urbach energy were calculated. In the photoluminescence analysis, a high-intensity emission peak was observed around 343 nm. The thermal properties such as the melting and decomposition points of the grown 4-chloroaniline single crystal were analyzed using the TG/DTA studies. The kinetic and thermodynamic parameters such as activation energy, frequency factor, entropy of activation, enthalpy of activation, and Gibbs free energy were evaluated by using different integral approximation methods. The dielectric properties were analyzed by parallel plate capacitor method at different temperatures corresponding to frequency ranges from 100 Hz to 1 MHz. The electronic parameters like plasma energy, Penn gap, Fermi energy, and electronic polarizability were calculated. The Z-scan technique was used to analyze the nonlinear optical properties of the grown 4-chloroaniline single crystal.