Modified triphenylmethane dye for the efficient nonlinear generation of light in nanostructured materials

Many nonlinear photonic materials exhibit large extinction coefficients as a result of the active molecule absorption band. The authors show that it is possible to redshift the absorption resonance of such material without a significant alteration of the nonlinear response. A drastic reduction in the absorption coefficient at the wavelength of interest is obtained by adding a triple bond unit to these active molecules. In such case, the nonlinear optical response of a photonic material would be much better than the one obtained with the original molecule or by following the conventional procedure of adding a double bond unit instead. © 2007 American Institute of Physics.