Crystal growth and characterization of piperazinium mercuric chloride (PMC) single crystal for nonlinear optical (NLO) application

[Display omitted] •PMC single crystal has been synthesis and grown by the slow evaporation solution technique for the first time.•UV–vis–NIR spectral studies reveal that the grown crystal has wide transparency.•Photoconductivity study reveals that PMC crystal possesses positive photoconductive nature.•Third order nonlinear optical susceptibility (χ(3)) of PMC is 4.72 × 10−6 esu. A single organic NLO crystal of piperazinium mercuric chloride (abbreviated as PMC) was grown from water solvent by the conventional solution growth method. The synthesised PMC crystal was purified by repetitive recrystallization. The PMC structure was confirmed by single-crystal X-ray diffraction analysis. Various other characterizations were carried out for the grown PMC single crystal, such as Powder X-ray diffraction analysis, UV–Visible-NIR, High resolution X-ray diffraction, Fourier Transform Infrared analysis, Nuclear magnetic resonance, Photoluminescence, Photoconductivity, Chemical etching, Dielectric analysis, Vickers microhardness, and Third harmonic generation (Z-Scan) analysis. The above-mentioned analyses revealed the various planes (h, k, and l) of crystal structure, optical analysis, crystalline perfection, structural analysis, etch pit density, mechanical stability, electrical analysis, and NLO properties of the grown crystal.