Improved transparency–nonlinearity trade-off with boroxine-based octupolar molecules

Abstract
A series of octupolar molecules derived from the boroxine framework were designed and their optical nonlinearities were investigated by performing harmonic light scattering experiments in solution; the molecules were found to combine excellent transparency in the near UV-visible region (λmax ≤ 280 nm) and significant first-order hyperpolarisabilities (up to β(0) = 56 × 10−30 esu).