Regulating Optical Activity and Anisotropic Second-Harmonic Generation in Zero-Dimensional Hybrid Copper Halides.

Abstract

Structural engineering permits the introduction of chirality into organic-inorganic hybrid metal halides (HMHs), which creates a promising and exclusive material for applications in various optoelectronics. However, the optical activity regulation of chiral HMHs remains largely unexplored. In this work, we have synthesized two pairs of lead-free chiral HMHs with a zero-dimensional tetrahedral arrangement, i.e., (<i>R</i>- and <i>S</i>-1-(1-naphthyl)ethylammonium)₂CuCl₄ and (<i>R</i>- and <i>S</i>-1-(2-naphthyl)ethylammonium)₂CuCl₄. The magnitude of optical activity in these HMHs can be efficiently modulated as a result of the different magnetic transition dipole moments. Furthermore, these HMHs exhibited effective second-harmonic generation (SHG) and distinct SHG-circular dichroism (CD), with (<i>R</i>-1-(1-naphthyl)ethylammonium)₂CuCl₄ having an anisotropy factor (<i>g</i>_SHG-CD) of up to 0.41. This work not only provides insights into regulating the optical activity and anisotropic SHG effect of lead-free chiral HMHs but also confirms the feasibility of SHG-CD spectroscopy as a promising tool for characterizing the intrinsic optical activity of chiral materials.