New Organic Materials with Large Optical Nonlinearities

We have investigated a large number of new nonlinear organic materials by second-harmonic generation (SHG) in powders, and found three compounds with SHG efficiencies an order of magnitude larger than urea. The results are interpreted in terms of bond conjugation, charge transfer, and crystal structure. These compounds are also found to have very high optical damage thresholds. Copyright © 1981 by The Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers, Inc.