Crystal Growth and Physico-Chemical Characterization of Semi-Organic [C4H12N2] ZnCl4. H2O Single Crystal for Laser Applications

Optical high quality semi-organic piperazinium tetrachlorozincate monohydrate, [C4H12N2] ZnCl4. H2O (PTCZ) single crystals were grown by conventional solution method. The structure of grown crystal was confirmed by the single crystal X-ray diffraction (SXRD) analysis. The material phase purities and its various (hkl) planes have been confirmed by the powder X-ray diffraction (PXRD) analysis at room temperature. The different functional groups were confirmed by the Fourier-transform infrared (FTIR) spectroscopy. The optical quality of the PTCZ single crystal and band gap energy have been identified by the UV-Vis NIR spectral analysis and also calculated refractive index of the material. The thermal stability of the PTCZ single crystal was investigated by TG-DTA. The hardness related properties were analyzed by microhardness tester. The dielectric properties have been measured on the grown single crystal and the electronic polarizability value has been calculated with various theoretical approach. The etching process was carried out on the grown crystal to finding the dislocation density. The crystal atomic perfection has been investigated by the high resolution X-ray diffraction (HRXRD) or Rocking curve (RC) analysis. The Z-scan measurement has been carried out to finding third-order optical susceptibility (χ(3)) of the grown single crystal using solid state laser (640 nm).

Determination of the full deformation tensor by multi-Bragg fast scanning nano X-ray diffraction

This work showcases a method to map the full deformation tensor in a single micro-sized crystal. It is shown that measuring the position of two Bragg reflections in reciprocal space is sufficient to obtain the full deformation tensor, if the condition of incompressibility of the material is imposed. This method is used to reveal the surface tension induced deformation at the edges of an as-grown single-crystal VO2 microwire. All components of the deformation tensor of the microwire were measured down to an absolute value of 10−4 in an 8 × 14 µm projected area of the wire. With a beam-defined spatial resolution of 150 × 150 nm, the measurement time was merely 2.5 h.

Study in Optical and Mechanical Properties of Nd3+, Y3+: SrF2 Transparent Ceramics Prepared by Hot-Pressing and Hot-Forming Techniques

Nd3+, Y3+: SrF2 transparent ceramics were successfully synthesized by two methods: hot-forming and hot-pressing techniques. The mechanical properties and optical properties of the hot-formed Nd3+, Y3+: SrF2 transparent ceramics were much better than that of single crystal. On the other hand, the transmittance of the hot-formed transparent ceramics with different deformation rate reached up to 90% at 1054 nm, which is superior to the hot-pressed ceramics. Furthermore, the fracture toughness of hot-formed Nd3+, Y3+: SrF2 transparent ceramics with the deformation rate of 51% reached up to 0.70 MPa m1/2, which is nearly 1.5 times higher than that of as-grown single crystal. The full width at half maximum (FWHM) of the hot-formed ceramic is larger than that of the single crystal at 1053 nm under continuous-wave (CW) laser operation. The thermal conductivity of Nd3+, Y3+: SrF2 single crystal and hot-formed ceramics were also discussed.