Second Order Nonlinear Optical Properties of a New Class of Organic Molecules

Linear and nonlinear optical properties of racemic and enantiomerically pure (R)-[1-(4-[2.2]paracyclophanyl)]-3-phenylpropane-1,3-diones, the first representatives of a novel class of noncentrosymmetric molecules, namely planar chiral [2.2]paracyclophane derived beta-diketones, have been studied. Both molecules exhibit second harmonic generation ability, the efficiency of which was measured by the powder technique at 1064.2 nm fundamental wavelength and their average NLO susceptibility was found comparable with that of a such well known NLO crystal as PNP.