Nonlinear optical properties of 3-HF in different polar solvents investigated by Z-scan technique using picosecond laser pulse

3-hydroxyflavone (3-HF) is an organic molecule with excited-state intramolecular proton transfer (ESIPT) effect. The nonlinear optical properties of 3-HF in the three different polar solvents (cyclohexane, ethanol and their mixture) were investigated by Z-scan technique under the excitation of the 1064 nm picoseconds laser pulse. The 3-HFs in these solvents exhibit the self-defocusing effect and their nonlinear refraction indices are in the order of 10−19m2/W (10−12esu). The large nonlinear refraction indices may allow them to be widely used for the optoelectronic devices.