Luminescent 1,10-Phenanthroline β-Diketonate Europium Complexes with Large Second-Order Nonlinear Optical Properties

Substitution of the diglyme ligand of [Eu(hfa)(3)(diglyme)] (where hfa is hexafluoroacetylacetonate) with a simple 1,10-phenanthroline leads to a six-fold increase of the product mu beta(EFISH), as measured by the Electric-Field-Induced Second Harmonic generation (EFISH) technique. Similarly, [Eu(tta)(3)(1,10-phenanthroline)] (where Htta is 2-thenoyltrifluoroacetone) is characterized by a large second-order NLO response. Both 1,10-phenanthroline europium complexes have great potential as multifunctional materials for photonics.