Second-order nonlinear optical organic crystals based on a “click” compound

Abstract

Click chemistry has been widely employed for the construction of many functional materials such as polymers and topological macromolecules, surface modifications and biomaterials. Polymers fabricated via a click reaction have been explored as nonlinear optical (NLO) materials with high NLO hyperpolarizabilities. However, this is very demanding for the thermostability of molecules and chromophores, which might be degenerative at elevated temperatures for processing techniques such as electric poling. Herein, second-order NLO crystals have been fabricated from an organic compound synthesized using facile click chemistry. Two noncentrosymmetric crystal phases of the target compound exhibit promising NLO performances with strong second harmonic generation (SHG) responses, along with high thermal stability and wide optical transparency. This work paves the way for the application of click chemistry in the construction of organic NLO crystals.