Single crystals of L-tyrosine bromide (LTB) have been grown by slow evaporation method from different solutions prepared with different normality of the solvent at ambient temperature. It has been observed that the growth rate along the crystallographic axes is considerably changed for different normality of solvent and remarkable morphological changes have been observed for the grown crystals. X-ray diffraction analysis, NMR and FTIR spectral analyses, thermo gravimetric (TG), and differential thermal analysis (DTA) have been employed to characterize the as-grown crystal. The UV cutoff (LTB) is below 300 nm and has a wide transparency window, which is suitable for second harmonic generation of laser in the blue region. Nonlinear optical characteristics of LTB have been studied using Q-switched Nd:YAG laser (lambda = 1064 nm). The second harmonic generation conversion efficiency of LTB is 1.2 times that of KDP. Hardness of the LTB crystal has also been determined. The laser damage threshold energy density has been found to be 625 MW/cm(2). (C) 2009 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.