Electric-Field-Induced Second Harmonic Generation Nonlinear Optic Response of A4 β-Pyrrolic-Substituted ZnII Porphyrins: When Cubic Contributions Cannot Be Neglected

Inorg Chem. 2020 Jun 1;59(11):7561-7570. doi: 10.1021/acs.inorgchem.0c00451. Epub 2020 May 15.

Abstract

In this work, we have prepared a series of A4 ZnII porphyrins, carrying in the β-pyrrolic-position one or two π-delocalized ethynylphenyl moieties with a -NO2 acceptor or a -NMe2 donor pendant, and measured their second-order NLO response in CHCl3 solution at 1907 nm via the electric-field-induced second harmonic generation (EFISH) technique. For some of these compounds, we have recorded an unexpected sign and/or absolute value of μβ1907. Since their sterically hindered A4 structure should ensure the lack of significant aggregation processes in solution, we explain such anomalous EFISH results by invoking a non-negligible contribution of the electronic cubic term γ(-2ω; ω, ω, 0) to γEFISH, as supported by a qualitative evaluation of the third-order response through the measure of the cubic hyperpolarizability (γTHG) and by computational evidence.