Longest unidirectional < 1 0 0 > benzophenone (BP) crystal having dimension of 1060 mm length and 55 mm diameter was grown by Sankaranarayanan-Ramasamy method. The growth rate was measured by monitoring the elevation of the crystal-solution interface at different temperatures. The high resolution X-ray diffraction and etching measurements indicate that the unidirectional grown benzophenone crystal has good crystalline perfection and less density of defects. The optical damage threshold of SEST and SR grown BP crystals has been investigated and found that the SR grown benzophenone crystal has higher laser damage threshold value than the conventional method grown crystal. Microhardness measurement shows that crystals grown by SR method have a higher mechanical stability than the crystals grown by SEST method. Dielectric permittivity and birefringence are high in SR grown crystal compared to SEST grown BP crystal. The UV-vis-NIR results show that SR method grown crystal exhibits 7% higher transmittance as against crystals grown by conventional method. (C) 2011 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.