Investigations on structural and optical properties of L-histidine hydrochloride monohydrate crystals at dynamic shock wave-loaded conditions

The study on the impact of shock waves on non-linear optical crystals is significant because it changes the materials’ functional properties, such as optical transmittance and dielectric properties. The current investigation is focused on the optical and structural responses of L-histidine hydrochloride monohydrate crystals under the impact of shock waves. L-histidine hydrochloride monohydrate crystals were grown at room temperature by slow evaporation. The shock waves with Mach number 1.7 have been generated from a pressure-driven shock tube. The crystallographic structural response of the titled crystal under shocked conditions has been discussed based on the obtained XRD and Raman spectroscopic patterns. The optical microscopic technique has been utilized to investigate the surface morphological changes on the test crystals. The optical properties of the pre-shocked and post-shocked crystals were analyzed over the wavelength range of 200 to 800 nm using a UV–visible spectrometer. The obtained analytical results confirm that the test sample does not undergo any kind of crystallographic structural transitions at shocked conditions, but significant structural deformations have been noticed and such deformations significantly reduced the percentage of the optical transmittance of the test crystal.