Rotational isomerism effects on the optical spectra of a push-pull nonlinear optical chro-mophore 2-dicyanomethylen-3-cyano-4-f2-[E-（4-N,N-di（2-acetoxyethyl）-amino）-phenylene-（3,4-dibutyl）-thien-5]-E-vinylg-5,5-dimethyl-2,5-dihydrofuran （FTC） in a few solvents have been studied using the time-dependent density functional theory in combination with the polarizable continuum model. It is shown that the maximum absorption peaks of the ro-tamers have difference of nearly 30 nm both in vacuum and in solutions. The population of the rotamers changes a lot in different solvents. Based on the geometries optimized by Hartree-Fock method, the Maxwell-Boltzmann averaged absorption has been calculated and the maximum absorption peak is in good agreement with experiment. It indicates that the bond length alternation can have an important effect on the optical spectra.
The influence of rotational isomerism on the two-photon absorption （TPA） of FTC chromophores has been investi- gated using the quadratic response theory with the B3LYP functional. Eight rotamers induced by three rotatable single bonds in the molecule are fully optimized, and it is found that their conformational energies are nearly degenerate. Our calculations demonstrate that rotational isomerism has an important effect on the TPA cross sections. For a certain rotamer, the maximum TPA cross section is enhanced significantly. In addition, in the longer wavelength region, the rotational isomerism could lead to a large shift of the TPA position.
