Enhancement in Two-Photon Absorption and Photoluminescence in Single Crystals of Cd(II) Metal Organic Frameworks

The emergence of metal organic frameworks (MOFs) as advanced photonic materials has placed them at the forefront of exploration. Nonlinear optical (NLO) phenomena such as simultaneous two-photon absorption and consequent upconversion emission have been in demand for promising applications. A rational design approach based on the fundamental structure-property relationship is key for the fabrication of nonlinear optically active MOF materials. Here, we investigate two-photon-absorption (2PA)-induced photoluminescence of four new Cd(II) MOFs based on an acceptor-π-donor-π-acceptor trans, trans-9, 10-bis(4-pyridylethenyl)anthracene chromophore linker. The use of auxiliary carboxylate linkers resulted in the variation of crystal structures, leading to the modulation of NLO properties. On comparison with a standard Zn(II)-MOF, two MOFs showed enhancement in 2PA, while the other two showed a mild decrease. We tried to establish a structural correlation to explain the trend in NLO activity. The interplay of various factors such as chromophore density, degree of interpenetration, chromophore orientation, and π···π interactions between the individual networks affects the NLO activities. These results show the modulation of the optical properties of MOFs based on a combined strategy for the development of tunable single crystal NLO devices.

N-Arylation of Protected and Unprotected 5-Bromo-2-aminobenzimidazole as Organic Material: Non-Linear Optical (NLO) Properties and Structural Feature Determination through Computational Approach

The interest in the NLO response of organic compounds is growing rapidly, due to the ease of synthesis, availability, and low loss. Here, in this study, Cu(II)-catalyzed selective N-arylation of 2-aminobenzimidazoles derivatives were achieved in the presence of different bases Et₃N/TMEDA, solvents DCM/MeOH/H₂O, and various aryl boronic acids under open atmospheric conditions. Two different copper-catalyzed pathways were selected for N-arylation in the presence of active nucleophilic sites, providing a unique tool for the preparation of NLO materials, C-NH (aryl) derivatives of 2-aminobenzimidazoles with protection and without protection of NH₂ group. In addition to NMR analysis, all synthesized derivatives (1a–1f and 2a–2f) of 5-bromo-2-aminobenzimidazole (1) were computed for their non-linear optical (NLO) properties and reactivity descriptor parameters. Frontier molecular orbital (FMO) analysis was performed to get information about the electronic properties and reactivity of synthesized compounds.

Selective Arylation of 2-Bromo-4-chlorophenyl-2-bromobutanoate via a Pd-Catalyzed Suzuki Cross-Coupling Reaction and Its Electronic and Non-Linear Optical (NLO) Properties via DFT Studies

In the present study, 2-bromo-4-chlorophenyl-2-bromobutanoate (3) was synthesized via the reaction of 2-bromo-4-chlorophenol with 2-bromobutanoyl bromide in the presence of pyridine. A variety of 2-bromo-4-chlorophenyl-2-bromobutanoate derivatives (5a–f) were synthesized with moderate to good yields via a Pd-catalyzed Suzuki cross-coupling reaction. To find out the reactivity and electronic properties of the compounds, Frontier molecular orbital analysis, non-linear optical properties, and molecular electrostatic potential studies were performed.

Whole-mol-ecule disorder of the Schiff base compound 4-chloro-N-(4-nitro-benzyl-idene)aniline: crystal structure and Hirshfeld surface analysis

In the crystal of the title Schiff base compound, C13H9ClN2O2, [CNBA; systematic name: (E)-N-(4-chloro-phen-yl)-1-(4-nitro-phen-yl)methanimine], the CNBA mol-ecule shows whole-mol-ecule disorder (occupancy ratio 0.65:0.35), with the disorder components related by a twofold rotation about the shorter axis of the mol-ecule. The aromatic rings are inclined to each other by 39.3 (5)° in the major component and by 35.7 (9)° in the minor component. In the crystal, C-H⋯O hydrogen bonds predominate in linking the major components, while weak C-H⋯Cl inter-actions predominate in linking the minor components. The result is the formation of corrugated layers lying parallel to the ac plane. The crystal packing was analysed using Hirshfeld surface analysis and compared with related structures.

Gold Nanorods as Saturable Absorber for Harmonic Soliton Molecules Generation

Gold nanorods (GNRs) has been investigated in the field of chemistry, optoelectronics, and medicine for their tenability, compatibility, electromagnetics, and excellent photonics properties. Especially, GNRs, used to generate ultrashort pulse, have been studied recently. However, multiple pulses evolution based on GNRs needs to be further explored. In this article, GNRs are synthesized by seed-mediated growth method, characterized systematically and been chosen as saturable absorber (SA) to apply in ultrafast photonics. The GNRs SA presents a saturable intensity of 266 MW/cm², modulation depth of 0.6%, and non-saturable loss of 51%. Furthermore, a passively mode-locked erbium-doped fiber laser based on GNRs SA with femtosecond pulse is demonstrated. Thanks to the excellent properties of GNRs, by adjusting the cavity polarization direction with the proposed GNRs SA, soliton molecules operation with spectrum modulation period of 3.3 nm and pulse modulation interval of 2.238 ps is directly obtained. For the most important, 9th-order harmonic soliton molecules have been generated in the laser cavity for the first time. It is demonstrated that GNRs can be a novel type of non-linear optical (NLO) device and have potential applications in the field of ultrafast photonics.

Synthesis, structure and non-linear optical properties of new isostructural β-D-fructopyranose alkaline halide metal-organic frameworks: a theoretical and an experimental study

In this work four metal-organic framework isomorphs, based on fructose and alkali-earth halogenides, were investigated to better understand the effect of the size of the cation and the different polarizability of the anion on the calculated hyperpolarizability and optical susceptibility, which are correlated to non-linear optical properties. The compounds were characterized by X-ray diffraction and the first hyperpolarizability and the second-order susceptibility were obtained from theoretical calculations. Furthermore, a new method to measure the second-harmonic (SH) efficiency on a small quantity of powder at different wavelengths of excitation was optimized and an attempt was made to assess the reduction of the SH intensity for small quantities of nano-crystals, in order to ascertain the possibility of applications in biological systems. The results of this work show that both the intrinsic nature of the anion and the induced dissociation of cations and anions by fructose play a role in the second-harmonic generating properties of such compounds.

Structure, morphology and optical properties of chiral N-(4-X-phenyl)-N-[1(S)-1-phenylethyl]thiourea, X= Cl, Br, and NO2

Three new enantiopure aryl-thioureas have been synthesized, N-(4-X-phenyl)-N-[1(S)-1-phenylethyl]thiourea, X= Cl, Br, and NO2 (compounds 1-3, respectively). Large single crystals of up to 0.5 cm(3) were grown from methanol/ethanol solutions. Molecular structures were derived from X-ray diffraction studies and the crystal morphology was compared to calculations employing the Bravais-Friedel, Donnay-Harker model. Molecular packing was further studied with Hirshfeld surface calculations. Semi-empirical classical model calculations of refractive indices, optical rotation and the electro-optic effect were performed with OPTACT on the basis of experimentally determined refractive indices. Compound 3 (space group P 1 (No. 1)) was estimated to possess a large electro-optic coefficient r(333) of approximately 30 pm/V, whereas 1 and 2 (space Group P 2(1) (No. 4) exhibit much smaller effects.