Issue Eur. Phys. J. Appl. Phys. Volume 47, Number 3, September 2009 Article Number 30701 Number of page(s) 7 Section Photonics DOI 10.1051/epjap/2009094 Published online 12 June 2009

Eur. Phys. J. Appl. Phys. 47, 30701 (2009)
DOI: 10.1051/epjap/2009094

Zinc potassium phosphate hexahydrate crystals for nonlinear optics

V. Krishnakumar¹, S. Manohar¹, R. Nagalakshmi², M. Piasecki³, I.V. Kityk⁴ and P. Bragiel<sup>3

1</sup>  Department of Physics, Periyar University, Salem 636 011, India
²  National institute of Technology, Tiruchirappalli 620 015, India
³  Department of Physics, J. Dlugosz University Czestochowa, Poland
⁴  Department of Chemistry, Silesian University of Technology, ul. Marcina Strzody 9, 44100 Gliwice, Poland

vkrishna_kumar@yahoo.com

Received: 12 April 2008 / Received in final form: 29 May 2008 / Accepted: 19 March 2009 / Published online: 12 June 2009

Abstract
Zinc potassium phosphate hexahydrate (ZnKPO₄.6H₂O) (abbreviated as ZPPH) single crystal is grown by reacting Potassium dihydrogen phosphate with Zinc Sulphate in equimolar ratio by slow evaporation. This compound crystallizes in the acentric orthorhombic symmetry class (space group Pmn21) and possesses photo induced optical second harmonic generation. The laser induced surface damage threshold for the grown crystal was measured as 1.7 10¹² mJ/cm² with Nd:YAG laser assembly which is of the same order as that of the reference KDP used in our experiment. The temperature dependent second harmonic generation studies were also carried out from room temperature to liquid helium temperature and the anomalies at low temperature qualifies this material as efficient low temperature optical switchers.

PACS
81.10.Dn - Growth from solutions.
78.20.Nv - Thermooptical and photothermal effects.
74.25.Gz - Optical properties.

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