Abstract

Current interest in organic molecules with large second-order hyperpolarizabilities β has produced a need for simple measurement techniques to provide feedback for molecular engineering efforts. Heinz et al.¹ have shown that surface second harmonic generation (SSHG) can be used to determine β for uniaxial molecules which adsorb noncentro-symmetrically on fused silica surfaces. We carried out a comparison of β measurements using SSHG and the electric-field-induced second harmonic (EFISH) generation on parasubstituted benzoic acids (R-C₆H₄COOH; R = donor, acceptor groups) and nitrobenzenes (R′-C₆H₄NO₂) in an effort to gauge the relative merits of both techniques.

© 1987 Optical Society of America