Second-order optical non-linearity of new 1,3,2(2H)-dioxaborine dyes

Abstract

A series of novel 1,3,2(2H)-dioxaborine dyes, containing a wide number of substituents on the dioxaborine ring, have been synthesized. Using a modulated-intensity ellipsometric technique, we show first that the second-order non-linear optical properties of the dioxaborines are influenced strongly by the choice of substituent moiety. Secondly, we show that the dioxaborines can exhibit sizeable non-linearities (µβ values of 2345 × 10^–48 esu) coupled with high thermal stabilities (280 °C). These two factors, combined with the synthetic ease of dioxaborine derivatives, may make this class of chromophore promising for non-linear optical devices.