Abstract
Quantum molecular engineering has been performed to determine the second-order nonlinear optical (NLO) properties in different halo complexes of decaborane (B10H14) and their derivatives using the density functional theory (DFT) method. These decaborane halo complexes of X-@B10H14 (X = F, Cl, Br, and I) are found to possess noncovalent charge transfer interactions. The static polarizability (alpha(0)) and first hyperpolarizability (beta(0)) among these complexes increase by moving down the group from F to I, partly due to the increase in size of their anionic radii and the decrease in their electron affinities. A two-level approximation has been employed to investigate the origin of beta(0) values in these halo complexes, which show very consistent results with those by the finite-field method. Furthermore, in the same line, two experimentally existing complexes, I-@B10H14 and I-@2,4-I2B10H12, are found to have considerably large beta(0) values of 2859 and 3092 a.u., respectively, which are about three times larger than a prototypical second-order NLO molecule of p-nitroaniline, as reported by Soscun et al. [Int. J. Quantum Chem. 2006, 106, 1130-1137]. Besides this, the special effects of solvent, counterion, and bottom substitutions have also been investigated. Interestingly, 2,4-alkali metal-substituted decaborane iodide complexes show remarkably large second-order NLO response with beta(0) amplitude as large as 62436 a.u. for I-@2,4-K2B10H12 complex, which are explained in terms of their transition energies, frontier molecular orbitals and electron density difference plots. Thus, the present investigation provides several new comparative insights into the second-order NLO properties of halo complexes of decaborane, which possess not only large first hyperpolarizabilities, but also high tunability to get a robustly large second-order NLO response by alkali metal substitution effects.