Physical Sciences and Mathematics Commons^™

Third‐Order, Nonlinear Optical Interactions Of Some Benzporphyrins, D.V.G.L.N. Rao, Francisco J. Aranda, Joseph F. Roach, David E. Remy

Physics Faculty Publications

We measured third‐order, nonlinear optical susceptibility χ⁽³⁾ for a series of tetrabenzporphyrins in solution in tetrahydrofuran at 532 nm using degenerate four‐wave mixing with picosecond pulses and obtained values of molecular second hyperpolarizability 〈γ〉. The corresponding macroscopic χ⁽³⁾ values calculated for nine compounds with different substituent groups are four to five orders larger than CS₂. For five of the compounds the χ⁽³⁾ values are in the range 1.2–2.8×10⁻⁸ esu. Our experiments indicate that the nonlinearity is predominately electronic in origin with a response time faster than the 15 ps resolution of our system.