Abstract
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 (
1
H &
13
C), 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 (
µ
), and polarizability (
α
) 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
~ 10
−8
cm
2
W
−1
. In open aperture Z-scan, N-ANC exhibits strong two-photon absorption (TPA) with TPA coefficient
β
~ 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.