An organic nonlinear optical material 4-Iodo 4-nitrostilbene (IONS) has been synthesized and good optical quality single crystal was grown from ethyl methyl ketone solvent by the solution growth technique. Single and powder X-ray diffraction analyses reveals that the grown crystal belongs to monoclinic crystal system with noncentrosymmetric space group 'P2(1)' and it has good crystalline nature. Functional groups and molecular structure of the title compound were confirmed by FTIR and H-1 NMR respectively. The UV-Vis-NIR absorption study reveals no absorption in the visible region and the cut-off wavelength was found to be at 412.84 nm, TG/DTA, mass spectral analysis, photoluminescence and microhardness studies have been carried out for the grown crystals and results are discussed in detail. The second harmonic efficiency of the IONS was determined by Kurtz Perry powder technique which reveals that the IONS crystal (3.1 V) has greater efficiency i.e., 143 times to that of KDP (21.7 mV). (C) 2013 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.