Theoretical and experimental investigation of electric field induced second harmonic generation in tetrathia[7]helicenes

In this paper, we report the first systematic experimental and theoretical investigation of the electric field induced second harmonic response of some tetrathia[7]helicene-based NLOphores. We studied six model compounds carrying the NO2, CH=CHCN, and COCF3 units as accepting groups on both the terminal thiophene positions as well as on the central benzene ring of the helicene backbone. These groups, known to be of medium and medium-strong accepting strength, allow tuning of both the electronic and structural properties of the helicenes studied. This experimental/theoretical study should set a milestone in addressing new structure-properties relationship of this class of nonconventional chiral chromophores able to show second order as well as third order NLO phenomena.