Excited state properties and quadratic optical nonlinearities in charged organic chromophores: Theoretical analysis

As it has been found experimentally [K. Clays and B. Coe, Chem. Mater. 15, 642 (2003); B. J. Coe, 126, 10418 (2004)], elongation of the conjugation path length and N -arylation in stilbazolium chromophores both lead to substantial enhancement of the molecular optical nonlinearities. In the present contribution the authors perform a quantum chemical analysis of the excited state properties and quadratic nonlinear optical responses of a series of this type of dyes. Nonlinear optical responses are estimated by both finite-field and two-state model approaches that demonstrate an excellent qualitative mutual agreement. Time-dependent density functional theory calculations on the isolated cations predict redshift in the energy of the intramolecular charge transfer transition that is overestimated for cations with the longer conjugation path length. At the same time, in comparison with the Stark spectroscopy measurements the differences between the excited and ground state dipole moments are grossly underestimated for all compounds. The inclusion of solvent effect by polarizable continuum model affords a better agreement with experiment for these quantities. The authors' calculations demonstrate the crucial dependence of the electronic excitation properties on the way of the investigated compound geometry optimization. The origin of such dependence is discussed.