Synthesis, growth and characterization of copper mercury thiocyanate crystal

340-343Synthesis and growth of nonlinear optical copper mercury thiocyanate, CuHg(SCN)4 (CMTC) single crystals have been successfully carried out by slow evaporation technique using water and ethanol as solvents with dimensions up to 12´8´5 mm3. The grown single crystals have been studied by different characterization techniques in order to know their suitability for various applications. The lattice parameters of the crystal have been obtained by single crystal X-ray diffraction analysis. The presence of functional groups have been identified using FTIR analysis. The thermal stability and thermal decomposition of CMTC crystals have been  investigated by using thermo gravimetric analysis and differential thermal analysis. The CMTC crystal exhibits good physio-chemical stability up to 253.8°C. The optical transparency of the grown crystal has been studied by UV-vis-NIR analysis. The lower cutoff wavelength of CMTC crystal occurs at 390 nm and has been discovered as a non linear optical crystal material. The relative second harmonic generation efficiency of the CMTC crystal has been tested by Kurtz - Perry powder technique