Molecular structure, second- and third-order nonlinear optical properties and DFT studies of a novel non-centrosymmetric chalcone derivative: (2E)-3-(4-fluorophenyl)-1-(4-{[(1E)-(4-fluorophenyl)methylene]amino}phenyl)prop-2-en-1-one.

In the present work, the title chalcone, (2E)-3-(4-fluorophenyl)-1-(4-{[(1E)-(4-fluorophenyl) methylene]amino}phenyl)prop-2-en-1-one (abbreviated as FAMFC), was synthesized and structurally characterized by single-crystal X-ray diffraction. The compound is crystallized in the monoclinic system with non-centrosymmetric space group P21 and hence it satisfies the essential condition for materials to exhibit second-order nonlinear optical properties. The molecular structure was further confirmed by using FT-IR and 1H NMR spectroscopic techniques. The title crystal is transparent in the Vis-NIR region and has a direct band gap. The third-order nonlinear optical properties were investigated in solution (0.01M) by Z-scan technique using a continuous wave (CW) DPSS laser at the wavelength of 532nm. The title chalcone exhibited significant two-photon absorption (β=35.8×10-5cmW-1), negative nonlinear refraction (n2=-0.18×10-8cm2W-1) and optical limiting (OL threshold=2.73kJcm-2) under the CW regime. In support of the experimental results, a comprehensive theoretical study was carried out on the molecule of FAMFC using density functional theory (DFT). The optimized geometries and frontier molecular orbitals were calculated by employing B3LYP/6-31+G level of theory. The optimized molecular structure was confirmed computationally by IR vibrational and 1H NMR spectral analysis. The experimental UV-Vis-NIR spectrum was interpreted using computational chemistry under time-dependent DFT. The static and dynamic NLO properties such as dipole moments (μ), polarizability (α), and first hyperpolarizabilities (β) were computed by using finite field method. The obtained dynamic first hyperpolarizability β(-2ω;ω,ω) at input frequency ω=0.04282a.u. is predicted to be 161 times higher than urea standard. The electronic excitation energies and HOMO-LUMO band gap for FAMFC were also evaluated by DFT. The experimental and theoretical results are in good agreement, and the NLO study suggests that FAMFC molecule can be a potential candidate in the nonlinear optical applications.