Materials exhibiting multi-photon absorption (MPA) are of significant interest for a range of applications including microfabrication, bio-imaging and sensing, and photodynamic therapy. Amongst the possible MPA materials, metal alkynyl complexes have attracted significant recent interest because the collinear metal and alkynyl ligand promote strong electron delocalization and intra-molecular charge transfer, resulting in complexes that can display outstanding MPA behavior. This review summarizes recent progress with metal alkynyl complexes as potential MPA materials, with an emphasis on structure-MPA property relationships that signpost the route to efficient multi-photon absorbers. A brief introduction to the theory of nonlinear optics that underpins MPA and an overview of the key experimental techniques to determine molecular MPA properties are also provided.

表现出多光子吸收 (MPA) 的材料对于包括微细加工、生物成像和传感以及光动力疗法在内的一系列应用具有重要意义。在可能的 MPA 材料中，金属炔基配合物最近引起了极大的兴趣，因为共线的金属和炔基配体促进了强电子离域和分子内电荷转移，从而产生了具有出色 MPA 行为的配合物。这篇综述总结了金属炔基配合物作为潜在 MPA 材料的最新进展，重点是结构-MPA 特性关系，这些关系标志着通往高效多光子吸收器的途径。