Impact of shock waves on morphological, structural, optical and dielectric properties of l-alaninium maleate crystals

Single crystals of l-alaninium maleate (LAM) were successfully grown by utilizing the Sankaranarayanan–Ramasamy (SR) method. The cut and polished crystal of LAM was subjected to shock waves of 1.7 Mach number. The dynamic shock wave impact on the test crystal in terms of morphological, structural, optical, and dielectric properties was analyzed using optical microscope, powder X-ray diffractometer, UV–Visible spectrometer, and impedance analyzer, respectively. From the observed data under shock-loaded conditions, LAM crystal exhibits a good structural stability against shock waves. The obtained values of optical transmittance of the test crystal for different number of shock pulses show that there is a slight reduction of transmission because of the induced defects and deformations formed under shocked conditions. From the dielectric study, it is observed that the values of dielectric constant and dielectric loss are reduced substantially under shock-loaded conditions.