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Science 30 October 1998:
Vol. 282. no. 5390, pp. 913 - 915
DOI: 10.1126/science.282.5390.913
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Reports

Strong Enhancement of Nonlinear Optical Properties Through Supramolecular Chirality

Thierry Verbiest, * Sven Van Elshocht, Martti Kauranen, Louis Hellemans, Johan Snauwaert, Colin Nuckolls, Thomas J. Katz, André Persoons

A new approach to second-order nonlinear optical (NLO) materials is reported, in which chirality and supramolecular organization play key roles. Langmuir-Blodgett films of a chiral helicene are composed of supramolecular arrays of the molecules. The chiral supramolecular organization makes the second-order NLO susceptibility about 30 times larger for the nonracemic material than for the racemic material with the same chemical structure. The susceptibility of the nonracemic films is a respectable 50 picometers per volt, even though the helicene structure lacks features commonly associated with high nonlinearity. Susceptibility components that are allowed only by chirality dominate the second-order NLO response.

T. Verbiest, S. Van Elshocht, M. Kauranen, L. Hellemans, J. Snauwaert, A. Persoons, Laboratory of Chemical and Biological Dynamics, Katholieke Universiteit Leuven, Celestijnenlaan 200 D, B-3001 Heverlee, Belgium. C. Nuckolls and T. J. Katz, Department of Chemistry, Columbia University, New York, NY 10027, USA.
*   To whom correspondence should be addressed. E-mail: thierry{at}lcbdiris.fys.kuleuven.ac.be

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