Optical nonlinearity of HBI in different solvents

Abstract 2-(2'-Hydroxyphenyl) benzimidazole (HBI) is one kind of organic molecules featuring excited-state proton transfer (ESPT). The nonlinear optical properties of 2-(2'-hydroxyphenyl) benzimidazole (HBI) in different polar solvents were investigated by means of Z-scan technique under the excitation of the 1064 nm picoseconds laser pulse. The experimental results show that the nonlinear refractive indices decrease with the enhancement of the polarity of the solvent. The nonlinear refractive indices sensitive to the solvent polarity allow them to be widely used for the optoelectronic devices.