Polymorphic donor–acceptor substituted chalcone: structural, spectral, dielectric and nonlinear optical properties for optical limiting applications

Herein, we report the third-order nonlinear absorption and optical limiting property of fluorinated polymorphic nonlinear optical (NLO) material 1-(3,4-dimethoxyphenyl)-3-(4-fluorophenyl) prop-2-en-1-one (abbreviated as PDPFO) based on reverse saturable absorption. The FTIR studies of optically transparent PDPFO single crystals confirm the presence of various functional groups. PDPFO is optically transparent in the visible wavelength region. The open aperture Z-scan technique showed the intensity-dependent nonlinear absorption. A decrease in normalized transmittance with input intensity indicated the optical limiting behavior at the wavelength 532 nm. The excited-state absorption cross-section value ( $${\sigma }_{ex}=$$ 1.72 × 10–16 cm2) is much greater than ground-state absorption cross-section value $$({\sigma }_{g}=$$ 2.49 × 10–22 cm2), suggesting that optical limiting phenomena are due to RSA.