The structural and third-order nonlinear optical studies of a novel nitro group-substituted chalcone derivative for nonlinear optical applications

Abstract

A novel optically high-transparent chalcone derivative (E)-3-(3-nitrophenyl)-1-(thiophene-2-yl)prop-2-en-1-one (2AT3N) has been synthesized and crystallized using slow evaporation solution method. The grown single crystals were characterized by FT-IR and FT-RAMAN vibrational technique. The spectroscopic investigations confirmed the presence of various functional groups in the grown single crystals. The single crystal X-ray diffraction analysis revealed that the harvested single crystals possess triclinic crystal structure under centrosymmetric space group P-1. In addition, the intermolecular interactions in the molecule were figured out by Hirshfeld surface analysis. The 2AT3N crystal possesses high optical transmittance beyond cutoff wavelength (358 nm) in the entire visible region. The thermal stability of the crystals has been examined by TG/DTA/DSC measurements. The 2AT3N crystals are thermally stable up to 148.3 °C. The third-order nonlinear optical properties have been studied using Z-scan experiment (532 nm and 200 mW). The Z-scan Experimental results reveal that the 2AT3N single crystals show high-order nonlinear absorption coefficient (β ~ 10−5cm W−1) and nonlinear refractive index (n2 ~ 10−9 cm2 W−1). The optical limiting study on 2AT3N was carried out using open aperture Z-scan data. The grown single crystals possess reverse saturation absorption (RSA) due to excited state absorption. The structural and nonlinear optical property relationship of the molecule along with the role of nitro group substitution in the enhancement of nonlinear optical property has been discussed in detail. Nonlinear optical studies show that, the synthesized novel chalcone derivative is an advisable material for nonlinear optical applications such as optical limiter and optical switches.