Wen-Yong Wang

Strategy for enhancing second-order nonlinear optical properties of the Pt(II) dithienylethene complexes: substituent effect, π-conjugated influence, and photoisomerization switch.

The second-order nonlinear optical (NLO) properties of a series of Pt(II) dithienylethene (DTE) complexes possessing the reversible photochromic behavior have been investigated by density functional theory (DFT) combined with the analytic derivatives method. The results show that the calculated static first hyperpolarizabilities (βtot) of the open-ring and closed-ring systems significantly increase in the range of 2.1-4.5 times through strengthening of the electron-withdrawing ability of the substituent R (R = H, CF3, NO2) and an increase of the number of thiophene rings. Moreover, there is a large enhancement of the βtot values from the open-ring systems to the corresponding closed-ring systems. This efficient enhancement is attributed to the better delocalization of the π-electron system, the more obvious degree of charge transfer, and the larger f(os)/E(gm)(3) (f(os) is the oscillator strength, and E(gm) is the transition energy between the ground and the excited states) values in the closed forms according to the bond length alternation (BLA) and time-dependent density functional theory (TDDFT) calculations. In addition, the dispersion has less influence on the frequency-dependent first hyperpolarizabilities (βtot(ω)) of the studied systems at the low-frequency area ω (0.000-0.040 au). Our present work would be beneficial for further theoretical and experimental studies on large second-order NLO responses of metal complexes.

Enhancement of second-order nonlinear optical response in boron nitride nanocone: Li-doped effect.

The unusual properties of Li-doped boron nitride nanomaterials have been paid further attention due to their wide applications in many promising fields. Here, density functional theory (DFT) calculations have been carried out to investigate the second-order nonlinear optical (NLO) properties of boron nitride nanocone (BNNC) and its Li-doped BNNC derivatives. The natural bond orbital charge, electron location function, localized orbital locator and frontier molecular orbital analysis offer further insights into the electron density of the Li-doped BNNC derivatives. The electron density is effectively bounded by the Li atom and its neighboring B atoms. The Li-doped BNNC molecules exhibit large static first hyperpolarizabilities (β(tot)) up to 1.19×10³ a.u. for Li@2N-BNNC, 5.05×10³ a.u. for Li@2B-BNNC, and 1.08×10³ a.u. for Li@BN-BNNC, which are significantly larger than that of the non-doped BNNC (1.07×10² a.u.). The further investigations show that there are clearly dependencies of the first hyperpolarizabilities on the transition energies and oscillator strengths. Moreover, time-dependent DFT results show that the charge transfer from BNNC to Li atom becomes more pronounced as doping the Li atom to BNNC. It is also found that the frequency-dependent effect on the first hyperpolarizabilities is weak, which may be beneficial to experimentalists for designing Li-doped BNNC molecules with large NLO responses.

Interlayer charge-transfer in impacting the second hyperpolarizabilities: Radical and cation species of hexathiophenalenylium and its nitro dimers

Hexathiophenalenylium (HTPLY) has gained increasing attention for its interesting and potentially useful optical properties as a result of the enhancement in spin delocalization and charge-transfer of phenalenyl radicals, occasioned by the attachment of successive three disulfide linkages. Herein, we performed density functional theory to calculate the binding interactions, electronic absorption spectra and the second hyperpolarizabilities of cation and radical dimers of HTPLY and its nitro derivatives. It is found that the equilibrium structures of the π dimers at fully staggered position are most stable. Among these π dimers, radical dimers exhibit stronger binding interactions with respect to cation dimers. In addition, obvious red shifts in electronic spectra of radical dimers are dependent on the large interlayer charge-transfers. More importantly, radical dimers [4]dim3 and [5]dim1 exhibit a significant increase in the second hyperpolarizabilities as compared to cation dimers, which is due to lower excitation energies and larger interlayer charge-transfers. We believe that the results presented in this article shall provide important evidence for the large interlayer charge-transfers in enhancing the NLO properties of the π dimers.

Theoretical investigation on switchable second-order nonlinear optical (NLO) properties of novel cyclopentadienylcobalt linear [4]phenylene complexes

AbstractAs a kind of novel organometallic complexes, the cyclopentadienylcobalt (CpCo) linear [4]phenylene complexes (4 = number of benzene rings) display efficient switchable nonlinear optical (NLO) response when CpCo reversibly migrates along the linear [4]phenylene triggered by heating or lighting. In this paper, the second-order NLO properties for CpCo linear [4]phenylene complexes were calculated by using the density functional theory (DFT) methods with four functionals. All of the functionals yield the same order of βtot values: 1<2<4<3. The effect of solvent on second-order NLO properties has been studied using polarized continuum model (PCM) in the tetrahydrofuran (THF) solution. The solvent leads to a slight enhancement of the NLO responses for the studied complexes relevant to their NLO responses in vacuo. The electronic absorption spectra were investigated by the TDDFT methods. The TDDFT calculations indicate that the maximum absorption peaks of complexes 2–4 in the near-infrared spectrum area show the bathochromic shift together with a decreasing intensity compared to complex 1. We have also found that the cobalt (Co) atom acts as a donor in all the organometallic complexes and the d → π* and π → π* charge transfer (CT) transitions contribute to the enhancement of second-order NLO response. Furthermore, two experimentally existing complexes 1 and 3 are found to have a large difference in βtot values. It is our expectation that this difference may stimulate the search for a new type of switchable NLO material based on CpCo linear [4]phenylene complexes. FigureThe second-order NLO properties of the cyclopentadienylcobalt (CpCo) linear [4]phenylene complexes were investigated by density functional theory (DFT) method, and complexes 1 and 3 display switchable NLO responses.

Carborane tuning on iridium complexes: redox-switchable second-order NLO responses

AbstractMuch effort has been devoted to investigating the molecular geometries, electronic structures, redox properties and nonlinear optical (NLO) properties of Ir complexes involving o-, m- or p-carborane groups by density functional theory (DFT) methods. Switchable second-order NLO properties were induced by redox processes involving these complexes, and it was found that mainly the coordination bonds of Ir complexes changed during the oxidation process. Our calculations revealed that oxidation reactions have a significant influence on the second-order NLO response owing to the change in charge transfer pattern. The βtot values of oxidized species are at least ∼9 times larger for set I and ∼5 times larger for set II than those of the corresponding parent complexes. Introduction of carborane groups into ppy (phenylpyridine) ligands can enhance the second-order NLO response by 1.2– 1.6 times by a metal-to-ligand charge transfer (MLCT) transition between the Ir atom and carborane. The βtot of complex 2 [(ppy)2Ir(phen)]+ (phen = phenanthroline) is 3.3 times larger than that of complex 1 (ppy)2Ir(acce) (acce = acetylacetonate), which is caused by ligand-to-ligand charge transfer (LLCT) between ppy ligands and the ancillary ligand. Therefore, it can be concluded that the second-order NLO response can be effectively enhanced by oxidation reactions. Graphical abstractRedox-switchable second-order nonlinear optical (NLO) responses

Computational investigation on redox-switchable nonlinear optical properties of a series of polycyclic p-quinodimethane molecules.

AbstractThe polycyclic p-quinodimethanes are proposed to be the novel candidates of the high-performance nonlinear optical (NLO) materials because of their large third order polarizabilities (γ). We investigate the switchable NLO responses of a series of polycyclic p-quinodimethanes with redox properties by employing the density functional theory (DFT). The polycyclic p-quinodimethanes are forecasted to exhibit obvious pure diradical characters because of their large y0 index (the y0 index is a value between 0 [closed-shell state] and 1 [pure biradical state]). The γ values of these polycyclic p-quinodimethanes and their corresponding one-electron and two-electron reduced/oxidized species are calculated by the (U)BHandHLYP method. The γ values of polycyclic p-quinodimethanes and their corresponding one-electron reduced species are all positive and significantly different. The large differences of the γ values are due to a change in the transition energy and are related to the different delocalization of the spin density, which demonstrates that the NLO switching is more effective on one-electron reduction reactions. Therefore, the study on these polycyclic p-quinodimethanes provides a guideline for a molecular design of highly efficient NLO switching. FigureThe NLO switching is more effective on one-electron reduction reaction