Crystal structure, spectroscopic analyses, linear and third-order nonlinear optical properties of anthracene-based chalcone derivative for visible laser protection

Chalcone derivatives have fascinated the growing attention due to their nonlinear optical (NLO) and optical limiting (OL) properties. In the present study, a simple anthracene-based chalcone, (E)-1-(9-anthryl)-3-(4-nitrophenyl)prop-2-en-1-one (abbreviated as N-ANC), was synthesized as a new NLO material. Single-crystal X-ray diffraction, TGA/DTA, NMR (H-1 & C-13), FT-IR and UV-Vis-NIR spectroscopies, and DFT studies were performed. The intermolecular interactions were described by Hirshfeld surface analysis (HSA). In addition, static dipole moment (mu), and polarizability (alpha) were also computed by DFT calculations. Experimentally, the third-order NLO properties of N-ANC were investigated in solutions for two concentrations (1 and 5 mM) by Z-scan technique. Closed aperture Z-scan reveals that N-ANC possesses negative type of nonlinearity (self defocusing) with nonlinear refractive index n(2) similar to 10(-8) cm(2)W(-1). In open aperture Z-scan, N-ANC exhibits strong two-photon absorption (TPA) with TPA coefficient beta similar to 10(-5) cmW(-1). The evaluated one-photon and two-photon figures of merit of N-ANC satisfy the conditions for all-optical switching applications. Moreover, optical limiting nature based on TPA was performed and limiting threshold was evaluated. The results show that N-ANC exhibits good limiting characteristics because of its strong reverse saturable absorption (RSA) response, and thus, it is a promising material for NLO devices.