Effect of the counter cation on the third order nonlinearity in anionic Au dithiolene complexes

Abstract

In this work, we present the third order nonlinear optical investigation of two gold complexes, which differ by the nature of the counter cations. The impact of the different design in the architecture through a set of hydrogen bonds in the case of Au-Mel of the systems on the nonlinearity has been studied by means of the Z-scan setup under 532 nm, 30 ps laser excitation, allowing for the determination of the nonlinear absorption and refraction of the samples. Significant modification of the nonlinear optical response between the two metal complexes has been found suggesting a clear effect of the counter cation.