Structural, optical, antimicrobial activity and surface analysis of pure and rare earth metal lanthanum (La 3+ )-doped ammonium pentaborate (APB) single crystals

Pure ammonium pentaborate (APB) and lanthanum (La 3+ )-doped APB single crystals have effectively been produced using the slow evaporation approach. The diffraction curves of full width at half maximum are 14.5 arc seconds for pure APB and La 3+ -doped APB is 57 arc seconds are analyzed by HRXRD. The crystals have a very low cut-off wavelength of roughly 240 and 230 nm for pure and La 3+ -doped APB, respectively, and it is used for NLO applications. By using TG/DTA investigations, the thermal stability of pure APB and La 3+ -doped APB was examined, and the pure APB is stable up to 103.60 °C and La 3+ -doped APB up to 117 °C. The FT-IR spectra were used to determine the vibrational bands corresponding to its functional groups. AFM was used to examine the crystal’s surface roughness of the pure and La 3+ -doped APB which is 2.51 nm, 6.48 nm, respectively.