Directional growth of 2-ethylimidazolium d-tartrate crystal along (001) and investigation of optical properties for optical limiting applications

A single crystal of 2-Ethylimidazolium d-Tartrate (2EIMDT) was grown along the preferred direction of (001) by the Sankaranarayanan-Ramasamy method. The growth direction was confirmed by X-ray Diffraction analysis. The optical homogeneity and the defect analysis of the grown crystal were carried out using birefringence interferometry, Williamson-Hall plot, and chemical etching. They revealed that the grown crystal possesses good optical and crystalline quality. Using the optical transmission spectrum, the optical band gap and Urbach energy were estimated to be 5.1 eV and 140 meV, respectively. The temperature dependence of the refractive index and thermo-optic coefficient were measured using the prism coupling technique for different wavelengths. The thermo-optic coefficient was found to be negative with values ∼10−5/°C. The laser damage threshold was estimated to be 6.5 GW/cm2 for a 1064 nm laser. Vickers micro-hardness study revealed that the (001) plane of the crystal is characterized by Meyer's index of 1.93. From the Z-scan measurement, it was found that the grown crystal exhibits two-photon absorption characteristics and the obtained imaginary parts of the third-order nonlinear optical (TONLO) susceptibility is 1.95 × 10−14 esu. Additionally, the onset optical limiting threshold was estimated to be 3.89 × 1012 W/m2 which indicates the potential of 2EIMDT for optical limiting applications.