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

Abstract 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 n 2 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.