Optical properties of L-alanine organic crystals

This work reports on the optical properties of L-alanine crystals grown from aqueous solution using the well-known slow evaporation method. Linear properties including absorption spectra and refractive indices are determined, as well as nonlinear properties of second harmonic generation (SHG), such as the phase-matching loci and efficiency. Although the SHG efficiency is smaller than those of other known materials, the study of L-alanine crystals is very important since it is part of more complex aminoacids including L-arginine and asparagine, with much higher SHG efficiency. Some mechanical properties are also presented, namely hardness and thermal expansion coefficients.