Influence of ferrocene doping on bridgman grown benzimidazole single crystals for third harmonic generation applications

•Pure and Ferrocene doped Benzimidazole single crystals were successfully grown by Bridgman technique.•Transparency increases from 55% to 68% while doping Ferrocene in the Benzimidazole single crystal.•Cuboid growth mechanism with minimal dislocations was noted while etching the doped crystal.•Improved third-harmonic generation (THG) efficiency was observed for doped Benzimidazole crystal. In this investigation, we explored the effect of ferrocene doping on the properties of benzimidazole single crystals. To achieve this, we grown pure and ferrocene-doped benzimidazole single crystals using the vertical Bridgman technique. We used various characterization techniques to analyse the grown crystals. Single crystal XRD showed slight change in lattice parameters. PXRD analysis revealed the successful incorporation of dopant into the material. The FTIR analysis is utilized to identify the functional groups present in the FBZ crystal. Transmittance property has been analysed using UV-Vis–NIR spectroscopic studies. The mechanical stability of the grown single crystals was verified through Vicker’s microhardness test. Etching analysis was carried out to elucidate the growth pattern of the single crystal. The third harmonic generation (THG) efficiencies of pure and doped benzimidazole crystals were comparatively investigated using the Z-scan technique. The determined χ(3) value for doped benzimidazole is 5.5 × 10−6 esu.