Optical and nonlinear optical properties of 4-(N,N-dimethylamino)-3-acetamidonitrobenzene single crystals

A method of growing high quality 4-(N,N-dimethylamino)-3-acetamidonitrobenzene (DAN) single crystals is presented. Crystal plates with dimensions of up to 10×5×2 mm3 were produced and optically characterized. The transparency region extends from 485 to 2270 nm. Large birefringence and strong dispersion of the refractive indices were measured allowing two branches of type I and two of type II phase-matched second-harmonic generation. From effective second-order nonlinear optical susceptibilities measured along the branches all nonlinear susceptibilities were evaluated, the highest being d23 =(50±15) pm/V.