Spectroscopic and third-order nonlinear optical properties of organic single-crystal 2-picolinictrichloroacetate: an overview

Organic single crystals of 2-picolinictrichloroacetate (PTCA) have been successfully grown by slow evaporation technique. The structural and optical characterization of the PTCA is analysed experimentally by Fourier transform infrared and UV–visible spectroscopic technique and theoretical studies, by density functional theory method. The charge transfer interactions leading to nonlinear properties taking place in the molecule have been studied by highest energy occupied molecular orbital and lowest energy unoccupied molecular orbital analysis and natural bond orbital analysis. Open-aperture Z-scan results on evaluating the nonlinear optical properties experimentally, confirm these materials as good optical limiters. In addition, the PTCA exhibits a blue luminescence emission which shows that it is a potential material for OLED device applications.