Regulating Optical Activity and Anisotropic Second-Harmonic Generation in Zero-Dimensional Hybrid Copper Halides

Structural engineering permits the introduction of chirality into organic-inorganic hybrid metal halides (HMHs), which creates a promising and exclusive material for applications in various optoelectronics. However, the optical activity regulation of chiral HMHs remains largely unexplored. In this work, we have synthesized two pairs of lead-free chiral HMHs with a zero-dimensional tetrahedral arrangement, i.e., (R- and S-1-(1-naphthyl)-ethylammonium)(2)CuCl4 and (R- and S-1-(2-naphthyl)-ethylammonium)(2)CuCl4. The magnitude of optical activity in these HMHs can be efficiently modulated as a result of the different magnetic transition dipole moments. Furthermore, these HMHs exhibited effective second-harmonic generation (SHG) and distinct SHG-circular dichroism (CD), with (R-1-(1-naphthyl)ethylammonium)(2)CuCl4 having an anisotropy factor (g(SHG-CD)) of up to 0.41. This work not only provides insights into regulating the optical activity and anisotropic SHG effect of lead-free chiral HMHs but also confirms the feasibility of SHG-CD spectroscopy as a promising tool for characterizing the intrinsic optical activity of chiral materials.

Automated summary

This study synthesized two pairs of lead-free chiral HMHs and explored their performance in terms of optical activity and second-harmonic generation, providing insights into regulating the optical activity of chiral HMHs.