Investigation of SR method grown directed Praseodymium doped KDP crystal and its Single crystal Xrd, LDT, thermal, mechanical, Etching, FTIR, SEM & TEM analysis

Abstract

An nonlinear optical unidirectionnel <101> single Crystal of Praseodymium doped potassium dihydrogen orthophosphate (KDP) was grown by Sankaranarayanan-Ramasamy (SR) method. The <101> oriented seed Crystal were mounted at the bottom of the glass ampoules and the Crystal of 16 mm diameter, 150 mm length were grown by SR method. The unit cell parameters were confirmed by single Crystal X-ray diffraction analysis and it belongs to Tetragonal system with a space group of I42d. The laser damage threshold (LDT) was measured using Q-switched Nd:YAG laser (1064nm) and was found to be 5.546 Gwcm -2 respectively. Its thermal stability has been studied using Vickers Microhardness tester and it exhibit higher hardness value. Chemical etching represent the distribution of structural defects in grown crystal. The presence of functional groups was examined by Fourier transform infrared (FTIR) analysis. The surface morphology and dislocations along <101> plane was observed using Scanning electron microscope (SEM) and Transmission electron microscope (TEM).