Thiophene Based Hydrazones: a New Class of Nonlinear Optical Molecular Crystals

Abstract

Crystalline solids are often regarded as the best choice of material form for practical use as optical frequency converters because of the excellent long-term orientational stability and extremely high density of active components. Such materials can be combined with inexpensive diode lasers for optic parametric generation of a broad range of optical frequencies [1, 2]. We here report on our on-going efforts in the development of novel and highly efficient second-order nonlinear optical crystalline materials for frequency conversion, based on the hydrazone derivatives 5-(methylthio)-thiophenecarboxaldehyde-4-nitrophenylhydrazone (MTTNPH) and 5-nitro-2-thiophene-carboxaldehyde-4-methylphenylhydrazone (NTMPH).