Second
harmonic generation (SHG) spectroscopy and microscopy have
been widely applied in studying the interfacial processes that occur
in chemical, physical, and biological systems. Efficient SHG probes
are crucial for these investigations. Herein, we designed two water-soluble
dyes with conjugated donor–acceptor structures (TPAP and TPAPM)
and studied their second-order nonlinear optical (NLO) properties
and fluorescence efficiencies. The modified molecules emitted much
less two-photon fluorescence than dye D289 due to nonradiative transitions
caused by molecular motions in solution. TPAPM exhibited higher NLO
performance than D289 and TPAP because of the strong electron pull–push
effect operating along the D−π–A backbone, and
it is a promising SHG probe molecule for multimodal imaging in biological
applications.