Published online by Cambridge University Press: 25 February 2011
A convenient method of measuring the nonlinear optical properties of molecular compounds is described. The method involves measuring the quadratic electro-optical coefficient of a polymer composite containing a variable concentration of the candidate NLO material. The X(3) (ω) value obtained by this low-frequency Kerr measurement, after local-field corrections, can be compared to the nonresonant third-order susceptibility measured by degenerate-four-wave-mixing technique on selective samples. We find that the choice of the polymer matrix dictates the contribution of second-order susceptibility to the Kerr coefficient. Therefore, our method can also be extended to the measurement of second-order susceptibility, analogous to the technique of field-induced second-harmonic-generation.