Synthesis and two-photon property studies of symmetrically substituted bisarylacetylene structures using functionalized quinoxalinoid units as the aryl substituents

• A series of symmetrically substituted multi-polar chromophores based on the skeleton of bisarylacetylene has been synthesized.
• These model fluorophores are found to manifest strong and wide dispersed two-photon absorption in the near infrared (NIR) region.
• Optical power-limiting behavior of a selected representative dye molecule is demonstrated.

A series of symmetrically substituted multi-polar chromophores (1–3) based on the skeleton of bisarylacetylene using functionalized quinoxaline, indenoquinoxaline, and pyridopyrazine moieties as the aryl substituents has been synthesized and characterized for their two-photon absorption properties using femtosecond laser pulses as the probing tool. Under our experimental conditions, these model fluorophores are found to manifest strong and wide dispersed two-photon absorption in the near infrared (NIR) region. It is demonstrated that molecular structures with multi-branched π−frameworks incorporating functionalized quinoxalinoid units would possess large molecular nonlinear absorptivities within the studied spectral range. Optical power-limiting behavior in the femtosecond time domain of the indenoquinoxaline-derived dye molecule (2) from this model compound set was also investigated and the result indicates that such structural motif could be a useful approach for the molecular design towards strong two-photon absorbing material system for quick-responsive and broadband optical-control related applications.

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