Third-order nonlinear optics and optical limiting of phenanthrenone derivatives

Organic nonlinear optical materials have attracted much attention due to their large nonlinear optical coefficients and ultrafast response speeds, as well as their potential applications in optical limiting (OL). Among them, nonlinear optical materials with phenanthrenone as the backbone are consistently understudied. We have successfully realized the transformation of organic small molecules in the nonlinear optical direction by replacing the carbonyl group on the structure of phenanthrenone with a malononitrile group. The nonlinear optical properties of CN-2 were investigated under different excitation conditions at 532 nm and the kinetic process of nonlinear optics was analyzed by transient absorption spectroscopy. In addition, we also investigated the OL properties of CN-2, and the OL experiments showed that CN-2 with a lower OL threshold has superior OL properties than C60.