Design, synthesis and spectral property studies of novel two-photon absorbing chromophores

Organic structures have become promising candidates for nonlinear optical materials in recently years due to their excellent optical responses and structural flexibilities. Many potential applications based on two-photon absorption (TPA) process are proposed and demonstrated by using organic compounds in the past few years. These applications mainly rely on large molecular two-photon absorptivity which is an intrinsic property of the material itself. In order to effectively design and utilize organic materials with enhanced two-photon absorption for the applications, it is necessary to analyze structure-property relationship systematically. On the other hand, the development of improved techniques for the characterization of molecular nonlinear absorption behavior is another important task.; The combination of molecular design and reliable characterization method development toward the understanding of structure-TPA property relationship is the original purpose of this thesis. It starts with the synthesis of several series of model organic compounds derivatized from trans-stilbene with various structural effects which are expected to influence molecular two-photon absorptivities. It followed by the development of efficient measurement method to probe molecular two-photon absorption behavior. Combining the measured results from our recently accomplished two-photon absorption spectra acquisition method, some detailed structural parameters of these model compounds are studied and discovered.; Other than the major parts, this thesis also includes our most recent experimental result of three-photon induced up-converted stimulated emission behavior from a chromophore solution and the electroluminescence properties of selected three model compounds.