Rigidized merocyanines: synthesis and linear and nonlinear optical properties

We have designed and synthesized donor/acceptor substituted hexatriences 10,11, in which the configuration is locked by a hexahydroanthracene frame. Donors and acceptors of varying strength were introduced. In order to assess the potential of our merocyanines 10,11 for NLO and photorefractive (PR) applications, we have measured their linear and nonlinear optical properties and determined the NLO and PR figures-of- merit (FOMs), respectively. The merocyanine 10d exhibits a very large Kerr FOM. The thermal stability of the new merocyanines 10,11 is sufficiently high for photonic applications. In order to investigate and to correlate the bond length alternation of our oligonenes 10,11 with linear and nonlinear optical properties we have carried out x-ray structure determinations.