Synthesis and third-order optical nonlinearity of some salts comprising planar pomplex cation and anion

Third-order optical nonlinearity of some new salts, which consist of planar complex cation [Cu(L)(2)](2+) (L=2,2 ' -bipyridine or phenanthroline) and planar complex anion [M(mnt)(2)](2-) (M = Ni, Co, Cu or Pd: mnt = maleonitriledithiolate). were studied by degenerate four-wave mixing (DFWM) technique. It was found that these compounds exhibit large non-resonant nonlinearity at 1064 nln (gamma (1111) in the order of 10(-31)-10(-30) esu). and that among the molecules of the same series. the molecule with metallic ion of larger atomic number possesses larger nonlinear hyperpolarizability gamma (1111). The results also indicate that the third-order optical nonlinearity of these salts mainly comes from the part of complex cation.