A photophysical and structural study on dye-type organic molecules with potentially useful nonlinear optical properties

We have initiated a photophysical and structural study of organic dye-type compounds containing various donor/acceptor groups and heteroatoms for use in nonlinear optical applications. Trends in the values of the second-order hyperpolarizability coefficient, {beta}, have been determined by the solvatochromatic method. Possible applications as organic crystals for second harmonic generation were explored with an X-ray diffraction structure analysis on one member of the series; 1,2,4-trichloro-8-nitrophenoxazin-3-one (1) crystallized in the space group P2{sub 1}/n (monoclinic), with four molecules in the unit cell.