Enhancement of optical nonlinearity in a guest-host system by nematic ordering

Second-harmonic generation (SHG) has been studied for understanding the enhancement mechanism for the second-order optical nonlinearity by the nematic (or axial) ordering in a liquid crystal doped with one-dimensional nonlinear optical (NLO) organic molecules. An extended version of the Maier-Saupe mean-field theory for nematic liquid crystals was developed to obtain analytical expressions for the second-order NLO coefficients in terms of the axial order, the polar order and the effective nematic potential. From the SHG data in a guest-host system composed ofN,N'-dimethylaminonitrostilbene molecules (0.5% by weight) and a liquid crystal, the enhancement of the second-order NLO coefficient,d ₃₃, by nematic ordering becomes almost 3, which agrees well with our theoretical predictions.     

Closed loops theory on the third-order nonlinear optical property of α- and β- isomers of [M8O26]4−: a TDDFT study

The third-order nonlinear optical (NLO) property of the α- and β- isomers of [Mo₈O₂₆]^4? polyoxometallate ion were studied by DFT/TDDFT method. The second static hyperpolarisabilities, γ_iiii, γ_iijj and γ_mean were calculated by finite-field method as an extension of the usual DFT run, and the results suggest that without any ligands coordinated, the two isomer molecules in high symmetry own modestly large γ values (γ_mean ～5×10^?32esu, 3×10^?32esu, respectively), and the electronic properties of the two isomers were also studied by DFT method for the discussion of the origination of the NLO response, especially the unique effect of the molecular orbital ‘closed loops' on the NLO response.     

Investigation of the polyetherketone guest–host DR1/PEK-c polymer films by real-time monitoring of the second-harmonic generation

The real-time monitoring of the second-harmonic generation (SHG) was used to optimize the poling condition and to study the nonlinear optical (NLO) properties of the polyetherketone (PEK-c) guest–host polymer films. The high second-order NLO coefficient χ₃₃⁽²⁾=11.02 pm/v measured at 1.064 μm was achieved when the weight percent of DR1 guest in the polymer system is 20%. The NLO activity of the poled DR1/PEK-c polymer film can maintain more than 80% of its initial value when temperature is under 100°C, and the normalized second-order NLO coefficient can maintain more than 85% after 2400 s at 80°C.     

Synthesis,structure, spectroscopic (FT-IR) and density functional modelling studies of 1-[(4-ethoxyphenylimino)methyl]napthalene-2-ol

Synthesis, crystallographic characterisation, spectroscopic (Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy [FT-IR]) and density functional modelling studies of the Schiff base 1-[(4-ethoxyphenylimino)methyl]napthalene-2-ol (C₁₉H₁₇NO₂) have been reported. The molecular structure obtained from X-ray single-crystal analysis of the investigated compound in the ground state has been compared using Hartree–Fock and density functional theory (DFT) with the 6-311++G(d,p) basis set. In addition to the optimised geometrical structures, atomic charges, molecular electrostatic potential, natural bond orbital, non-linear optical (NLO) effects and thermodynamic properties of the compound have been investigated by using DFT. The experimental (FT-IR) and calculated vibrational frequencies (using DFT) of the title compound have been compared. The solvent effect was also investigated for obtained molecular energies and the atomic charge distributions of the compound. There exists a good correlation between experimental and theoretical data for enol-imine form of the compound. The total molecular dipole moment (µ), linear polarisability (α), and the first-order hyperpolarisability (β) were predicted by the B3LYP method with different basis sets 6-31G(d), 6-31+G(d,p), 6-31++G(d,p), 6-311+G(d) 150 and 6-311++G(d,p) for investigating the effects of basis sets on the NLO properties. Our computational results yield that β_tot for the title compound is greater than those of urea.     

聚合物薄膜中生色团分子间的相互作用对其宏观二阶非线性的影响

制备了3-(1,1-二氰基噻吩)-1-苯-4,5-二羟基-H-噻唑(DCNP)与聚醚醚酮(PEK-c)组成的主客掺杂聚合物薄膜,用Maker条纹法测量了不同掺杂浓度下薄膜的二阶非线性系数χ₃₃⁽²⁾.实验结果表明,聚合物中生色团的含量高到一定程度,其宏观二阶非线性随生色团含量的增加反而下降.本文在考虑聚合物中生色团分子相互作用的情况下,修正了聚合物宏观二阶非线性与生色团的含量之间的关系,此时聚合物宏观二阶非线性与生色团的含量已非简单的正比关系.讨论了生色团分子间 关键词：     

NLO characteristics of D-π-A coumarin-thiophene bridged azo dyes by Z-scan and DFT methods

ABSTRACT

The structural, electronic, intramolecular charge transfer (ICT) and nonlinear optical (NLO) properties of the donor-π-acceptor (D-π-A) azo linked dyes bearing coumarin thiophene bridge with different acceptors were inspected by Z-scan and DFT methods. The dye 3a exhibits bathochromic absorption maxima (649 and 650?nm) in the near IR region in DMF and DMSO. The dye 3a holds low HOMO–LUMO gap elucidated by CV and DFT indicating strong ICT character. The thermal stability is high for 3a and it shows enhanced NLO property by Z-scan and DFT methods as predicted in both global and range-separated hybrid functionals. The molecular geometry was optimised using B3LYP/6-311?+?g(d,p). The ICT characteristics are correlated with NLO properties obtained by Z-scan and DFT techniques.     

Computational study of chiral molecules with high intrinsic hyperpolarizabilities

We have investigated the electronic transition, chiroptical properties, and the second-order nonlinear optical (NLO) properties of eight novel chiral diborate compounds and elucidated structure–property relationships from the micromechanism. These compounds show calculated first hyperpolarizabilities (β) ranging from 2738.52 to 83976.45?×?10^?33?esu, which means that subtle structural modifications can substantially enhance the first hyperpolarizability. The cooperativity of intramolecular charge transfer and an effective way to enhance the NLO response were also systemically investigated. The linear correlation between the first hyperpolarizability and the inverse of the electronic transition energy suggests that the electronic transition energy plays a key role in determining the NLO response. These compounds have the potential to be excellent second-order NLO materials from the standpoint of the large β values, high transparency and the intrinsic non-centrosymmetry. The electronic transition and chiroptical properties have been assigned and analysed. The main UV–visible absorption features are best described as π?→?π* transitions. Moreover, the effects of different functionals and basis sets on the first hyperpolarizability were investigated.     

SECOND-ORDER NONLINEAR OPTICAL PROPERTIES OF TITANIUM DIOXIDE NANOPARTICLES AND NANOPARTICLES-DYE COMPOSITES

Hyper-Rayleigh Scattering (HRS) technique was used to study the second-order nonlinear optical (NLO) responses of aqueous titanium dioxide (TiO₂) nanoparticles of 10nm in size, and two nanoparticles-dye composites prepared by adding rhodamine B (Rh610) or the organic tosylate salt of dimethylaminostilbazolium (DAST). Results showed that the "per particle" first hyperpolarizability β for TiO₂ nanoparticles is very large, in the range of 10²⁶ esu. With adding Rh610 and DAST, the HRS signals of the composites were further enhanced. And in TiO₂/Rh610 composite the enhancement was obviously greater than that of TiO₂/DAST composite. It has proved that non-centrosymmetry of the nanocrystal/solution interface contributes mainly to its large "per particle" β, overwhelming the nanocrystal core. So the interactions between nanoparticles surfaces and adsorbed dyes were very important for their second-order NLO responses. HRS technique provides a useful new NLO method to characterize the surface structures and microenvironment of nanoscale materials.     

DFT-based study of the impact of transition metal coordination on the charge transport and nonlinear optical (NLO) properties of 2-{[5-(4-nitrophenyl)-1,3,4-thiadiazol-2-ylimino]methyl}phenol

Theoretical investigations of the impact of transition metal chelation on the electron/hole-transport and nonlinear optical (NLO) properties of 2-{[5-(4-nitrophenyl)-1,3,4-thiadiazol-2-ylimino]methyl}phenol (L) are reported herein. Calculations were carried out via density functional theory (DFT)-based methods, employing exchange–correlation functionals and basis sets of different qualities. Results have shown that free L is a moderate electron/hole-transporter, but that its Pd(II) and Pt(II) complexes are excellent hole- and electron-transport materials respectively, owing to their very small reorganisation energies and relatively large electronic coupling matrix elements or transfer integrals. These results indicate that the complexes are potentially suitable charge transport materials for the construction of organic light emitting diodes (OLEDs). Nevertheless, the results also revealed a higher NLO activity for L than its metal complexes. Interestingly, the first and second hyperpolarizabilities, along with some computed NLO properties of both L and its complexes are found to be remarkably higher than those of the prototypical push–pull molecule, para-nitroaniline. Accordingly, these compounds are potential candidates for the fabrication of optoelectronic and photonic devices for second- and third-order NLO applications. Summarily, metal chelation is found to enhance the charge transport properties in some cases, and to slightly diminish NLO response of L in all cases investigated.     

Importance of hydrogen bonding for second harmonic generation effect: X-ray diffraction and DFT study on S-benzyl isothiouronium chloride

X-ray diffraction study of the nonlinear optical (NLO) material S-benzyl isothiouronium chloride (C₈H₁₁N₂SCl) (SBTC) is reported for the first time. The single crystal of SBTC is orthorhombic with space group Pbca. SBTC exhibits second-order NLO susceptibility, and this study shows that hydrogen bonding is, in part, responsible for this. The present work shows that C-H?Cl and N-H?Cl hydrogen bonds direct the nature of the three-dimensional lattice. Such intermolecular interactions help to extend the molecular charge transfer into the supramolecular realm, the charge transfer originating as a consequence of the high level of molecular planarity and strong donor-to-acceptor interactions. Density functional theory (DFT) calculation and atom-in-molecule (AIM) analysis has been carried out to study the nature of hydrogen involved in the SBTC complex.     

Nonlinear optical and structural properties of M@C N endohedrals (M = Li,Ca and Sc,N = 60 and 70)

We have investigated the static (ω = 0) and frequency-dependent nonlinear optical (NLO) properties of the M@C _N endohedrals (M = Li, Ca, Sc, N = 60 and 70) using the SSH (Su–Schrieffer–Heeger) approximation and sum-over-state (SOS) approach. Also, we study the effects of displacement and alkali, alkaline earth and lanthanide metal atoms and type of cage on the hyperpolarisabilities of the M@C _N endohedrals. The hyperpolarisability magnitudes and spectra are in agreement with experiment and the work of others using the SSH approximation. Our results indicate that the cage-type effect on the NLO spectra of M@C _N endohedrals is dramatic. Also, atom type has little effect on the highest peak value. These relationships between the atom and cage type and hyperpolarisability values may be beneficial to experimentalists when designing new NLO materials with large NLO responses.     

Electronic properties of phenanthrimidazoles as hole transport materials in organic light emitting devices and in photoelectron transfer to ZnO nanoparticles

Phenanthrimidazoles as hole transport materials have been synthesized, characterized, and applied as nondoping emitters in organic light emitting devices. The synthesized molecules possess high fluorescent quantum yield and thermal properties and display film forming abilities. The highest occupied molecular orbital (HOMO) energies of these materials are shallower than the reported tris(8‐hydroxyquinoline)aluminum (Alq₃), which enables the hole transport ability of these phenanthrimidazoles. Taking advantage of the thermal stability and hole transporting ability, these compounds can be used as a functional layer between NPB [4,4‐bis(N‐(1‐naphthyl)‐N‐phenylamino)biphenyl] and Alq₃ layers and show that these phenanthrimidazoles can be alternatively used as novel hole transport materials and to improve the device performances. Geometrical, optical, electrical, and electroluminescent properties of these molecules have been probed. Further, natural bond orbital, nonlinear optical materials (NLO), molecular electrostatic potential, and HOMO–lowest unoccupied molecular orbital (LMO) energy analysis have been made by density functional theory (DFT) method to support the experimental results. Hyperpolarizability analysis reveals that the synthesized phenanthrimidazoles possess NLO behavior. The chemical potential, hardness, and electrophilicity index of phenanthrimidazoles have also been computed by DFT method. Photoinduced electron transfer explains the enhancement of fluorescence by nanoparticulate ZnO, and the apparent binding constant has been obtained. Adsorption of the fluorophore on ZnO nanoparticle lowers the HOMO and LUMO energy levels of the fluorophore. The strong adsorption of the phenanthrimidazoles on the surface of ZnO nanocrystals is likely due to the chemical affinity of the nitrogen atom of the organic molecule to Zn(II) on the surface of nanocrystal. Copyright © 2013 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Effect of thermal treatment on the nonlinear optical response and stability of hybrid inorganic-organic films

Hybrid inorganic-organic second-order nonlinear optical (NLO) materials have been obtained through hydrolysis and co-condensation between tetraethyl silicate (TEOS), Vinyltriethoxysilane (VTES) and an alkoxysilane dye (ICTES-DR1). The hybrid materials showed a thermal stability up to 306 °C in thermogravimetric analysis (TGA) thermograms and no visible glass transition temperature (T_g) was observed in the range 50-200 °C in differential scanning calorimetry (DSC) thermograms. The poling profiles of the hybrid films were investigated by using the in situ second harmonic generation (SHG) measurement. The thermal stability of the second order NLO properties of the poled films were also investigated by the in situ SHG intensity probing. It has been shown that the NLO response and its thermal stability were strongly dependent on the thermal pretreatment of the films.     

Nonlinear optical ferroelectric liquid crystals and device configurations

Ferroelectric Liquid Crystals (FLCs) are presented which comprise charge-transfer functional groups, such that highly efficient NonLinear Optical (NLO) properties and pronounced ferroelectricity result. By operating the NLO-FLCs in one of the two Bistable states of the Short-pitch Ferroelectric (SPF) conformation, stable, planar waveguides result. The NLO-FLCs exhibit exceptionally large second-order NLO-coefficientsd ₂₂ = 5 pm/V. Moreover, their linear electrooptical effect is shown to be essentially electronic in nature. This renders ultrafast electrooptical modulators with NLO-FLCs feasible.     

Nonlinear optical properties of nanometer-size silver coated polydiacetylene composite vesicles and resulting Langmuir–Blodgett films

Noble metal-coated PDA composite vesicles were expected to increase the effective third-order nonlinear optical susceptibility χ ⁽³⁾(ω), due to the enhancement of the optical electric field induced by localized surface plasmon resonance. Different size (20, 50 and 80 nm) Ag colloidal nanoparticles were coated on the outer surface of polydiacetylene (PDA) vesicles to form PDA/Ag nanocomposite vesicles and the size-dependent effect of Ag colloidal nanoparticles on NLO properties enhancement has been explored. The explanation based on the competition of a size-dependent light-confinement effect and a size-dependent dielectric constant of Ag particles had been presented. Furthermore, these PDA/Ag composite vesicles were successfully immobilized onto the solid substrate by the Langmuir–Blodgett (LB) method and their linear and nonlinear optical properties were characterized, respectively. Obviously, PDA/Ag composite vesicles Langmuir–Blodgett (LB) films promoted the enhancement of the third-order NLO properties.     

Second-harmonic generation in poled films of nonlinear optical polymer composites

The second-harmonic generation (SHG) has been measured for studying the molecular ordering and its relaxation process in poled states of two different nonlinear optical (NLO) polymer composites.p-Nitroaniline (pNA) and the azo dye Disperse Orange 3 (DO3) are uniformly dispersed in photopolymer matrices followed by poling. Two different composites made-up of 1 wt% of pNA and 2.5 wt% of DO3 are poled at 200 MV m^-1 and 80 MV m^-1, respectively. One of the second-order NLO coefficients,d ₃₃, was found to be 0.27 pm V^-1 for the pNA-doped film and 0.20 pm V^-1 for the DO3-doped film. While for the latter the ratiod ₃₃/d ₃₃ (3.1) is consistent with the value of 3 in the low-field approximation, for the former the value of 3.5 indicates that higher-order effects of the poling field play a significant role in the NLO process. It is suggested that the SHG relaxation dynamics is also closely related to the UV absorption of the NLO molecules in a photopolymer matrix.     

可溶性聚噻吩甲烯包覆碳纳米管的三阶非线性光学响应

采用原位聚合的方法合成了聚(3-己基噻吩)-2,5-二(4-羟基-3-甲氧基苯甲烯)包覆的多壁碳纳米管(PHTHMOBQ/MWNTs). 荧光光谱分析表明, PHTHMOBQ/MWNTs复合体中, 碳纳米管与共轭聚合物PHTHMOBQ之间形成光致电子转移体系, 使得π电子离域程度增加, 并且导致荧光量子效率降低. 根据E_g与入射光子能量hν的关系, 拟合了PHTHMOBQ/MWNTs薄膜的光学禁带宽度. 发现随着碳纳米管含量的增加, E_g逐步减小. 采用简并四波 关键词： 共轭聚合物 碳纳米管 光致电子转移 三阶非线性光学效应     

Growth, Characterization and Theoretical Study of a Novel Organometallic Nonlinear Optical Crystal: CdHg(SCN)4(C2H5NO)2

A novel potentially useful second harmonic generation (SHG) organometallic nonlinear optical (NLO) crystal: cadmium mercury thiocyanate bis(N-methylformamide), CdHg(SCN)₄(C₂H₅NO)₂ (CMTN), has been prepared, and large high-optical-quality single crystals with dimensions up to 30 ×27×9 mm³ have been grown by the temperature-lowering method. Its structural, physicochemical and optical properties are characterized by elemental analyses, X-ray powder diffraction, Fourier transform infrared and Raman spectroscopy, thermal analysis, powder SHG measurements and UV/Vis/NIR transmission. The specific heat has been determined to be 515.5 J?mol^?1?K^?1 at 300 K. CMTN possesses good physicochemical stability up to 128.5^°C, exhibits powder SHG efficiencies 0.8 times that of urea and its UV transparency cutoff is 358 nm. By the use of the DFT/B3LYP/6-31G(d) method, the microscopic second order NLO behavior of CMTN has been investigated by computing the first-order hyperpolarizability together with that of CdHg(SCN)₄ (CMTC) and CdHg(SCN)₄(C₃H₈O₂) (CMTG) crystals. The results have been explained based on their crystal structures.     

Theoretical investigation of nonlinear properties of electrooptical chromophores

Organic electrooptical (EO) chromophores are now gaining more attention because the property of organic photorefrative (PR) materials could be controlled by doped EO chromophores. In this paper, nonlinear optical (NLO) properties of a new group of organic electrooptical chromophores, synthesized recently in our laboratory, were elucidated theoretically with the quantum chemical density functional theory (DFT) and the intermediate neglect of differential overlap Hamilton and the configuration interaction (INDO/CI), as well as semiemperical Austin Model 1 (AM1) methods. The electronic transition intensity, dipole moment and the second- order polarizability were obtained. The results show this group of chrormophores possess appropriate optical absorption property and good electrooptical property and optical activity. The second-order polarizabilities βare as large as the order of 10-29 to 10-28 ESU, indicating the promising applications in the future. The physical mechanism of NLO is discussed by means of molecular orbital and electronic charge distribution.