Accurate Determination and Modeling of the Dispersion of the First Hyperpolarizability of an Efficient Zwitterionic Nonlinear Optical Chromophore by Tunable Wavelength Hyper-Rayleigh Scattering

Abstract

The wavelength-dependent molecular first hyperpolarizability β of the zwitterionic nonlinear optical (NLO) chromophore picolinium quinodimethane (PQDM) is determined by hyper-Rayleigh scattering (HRS) and used to test and improve theoretical β dispersion models. Experimental HRS data are obtained over a very wide fundamental wavelength range (780−1730 nm), spanning the entire range of two-photon resonance with the intramolecular charge-transfer (ICT) transition and reaching the onset of a higher energy resonance. Reliable calibration against the pure solvent (dimethylformamide, DMF, and DMF-d7 at the longest wavelengths) was achieved over the full spectral range as a result of the high sensitivity of the HRS setup. Extremely high resonant β values are obtained (up to 4560 × 10-30 esu at 1360 nm) and also away from resonance β remains very large (1210 × 10-30 esu at 1730 nm). The two-photon resonance with the ICT band shows a pronounced red shift (∼33 nm in second-harmonic wavelength) relative to the absor...