Sunset yellow dyed triglycine sulfate single crystals: enhanced thermal, mechanical, optical and di-/piezo-/ferro-/pyro-electric properties

Single crystals of pure and sunset yellow (SSY) dye doped (0.05 mol%) triglycine sulphate (TGS) were grown by slow evaporation solution technique with the vision to improve the properties of pure TGS crystal. The external morphology of TGS crystal was deduced from its internal crystal structure by using two of the well established models, namely Bravais–Friedel–Donnay–Harker model (B–F–D–H) and Hartman–Perdok (H–P) periodic-bound chain (PBC) vectors model. The selective nature of sunset yellow dye to selectively stain the particular growth sectors of TGS crystal was studied. The structural analysis of both the crystals was carried out using powder XRD and FTIR studies. UV–Vis–NIR spectroscopy was carried out on both pure and SSY dyed TGS crystals to study their linear optical properties and various optical parameters namely optical band gap, refractive index, extinction coefficient and optical conductivity were determined. The thermal stability, melting point, ferro- to para-electric transition temperature, piezoelectric charge coefficient, ferroelectricity and mechanical hardness got enhanced as an effect of SSY dye doping in TGS matrix. The piezoelectric conversion efficiency (d₂₂) got enhanced from ~ 56 pm/V for pure TGS single crystal to ~ 85 pm/V for SSY doped TGS single crystal. The true-remanent polarization was determined for dyed TGS crystal using ‘Remanent Hysteresis Task’ which showed the presence of very small contributions of non-switchable components. ‘Time-Dependent Compensated (TDC)’ hysteresis task revealed the absence of resistive leakage in SSY-Doped TGS crystal. The pyroelectric coefficient got enhanced from ~ 761 µCm⁻²/°C for pure TGS single crystal to ~ 850 µCm⁻²/°C for SSY doped TGS single crystal. Comparative optical, mechanical, dielectric, piezoelectric, ferroelectric and pyroelectric studies provide useful scientific information of an important class of TGS crystals and suggest SSY-Doped TGS crystal as a better alternative than pure TGS crystal for various opto-electronics and ferroelectric devices applications.