Synthesis of nickel(II) complexes containing modified phenanthroline ligands for potential nonlinear optical applications

• Three nickel(II) complexes were synthesized and characterized. Two of them are new.
• The third-order optical nonlinearities of these complexes were investigated.
• The relationships between molecular structure and optical property were analyzed.

Three nickel(II) complexes containing modified phenanthroline ligands were synthesized and characterized by UV–visible, IR, MS and elemental analysis. Their off-resonant third-order nonlinear optical properties were measured using femtosecond laser and degenerate four-wave mixing technique. The third-order nonlinear optical susceptibilities χ(3) were 3.74–4.23 × 10−13 esu. The nonlinear refractive indexes n2 were 6.88–7.77 × 10−12 esu. The second-order hyperpolarizabilities γ of the molecules were 3.74–4.22 × 10−31 esu. The response times were 58–75 fs. The results show that these complexes have potential nonlinear optical applications.

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