Optical second harmonic generation (SHG) from molecular crystals is largely controlled by the molecular
hyperpolarizability and the relative disposition of the molecules in the crystal lattice. Even though it is
known that intermolecular interactions can modify the bulk SHG, strong and direct influence of such
effects in crystals has not been widely demonstrated. We present a new family of crystals based on the
achiral remote functionalized nonlinear optical (NLO) chromophore, N-(2-aminoethyl)-4-nitroaniline,
combined with a homologous series of carboxylic acids, in which the overwhelming impact of
supramolecular interactions on the solid-state SHG is clearly manifested. Crystallographic investigations
reveal a systematic variation in the superstructure formation of the NLO-phore unit across the series, and
the intensities of the SHG from microcrystalline samples are found to correlate with the assembly pattern.
Failure of simple additive models in explaining the SHG trend is analyzed using quantum chemical
computations of the hyperpolarizability of molecular clusters which establishes the dominant influence
of noncovalent intermolecular interactions. The present study illustrates the feasibility of exploiting
supramolecular structural features to enhance the NLO response of molecular materials.