A new potentially useful nonlinear optical organic material, 1-(5-chlorothiophen-2-yl)-3-(2,3-dimethoxyphenyl)prop-2-en-1-one, has been synthesized and grown as a high-quality single crystal by the slow evaporation technique. The grown crystals were characterized by FT-IR, NMR, thermal analysis, and UV-visible spectroscopy. The material is thermally stabile up to 111 degrees C. The mechanical property of the grown crystals was studied using Vickers microhardness tester and the load dependence hardness was observed. The third order nonlinear optical properties of the material such as real and imaginary part of chi((3)), nonlinear absorption coefficient and nonlinear refractive index were determined using nanosecond laser pulses at 532 nm wavelength by employing Z-scan technique. The nonlinear refractive index is found to be of the order of 10(-11) cm(2) W-1. The magnitude of third order susceptibility is of the order of 10(-13) esu. The observed increase in the third order nonlinearity in these molecules clearly indicates the electronic origin. The compounds exhibit good optical limiting at 532 nm. The best optical limiting behavior of this molecule is due to the substituted strong electron donor. (C) 2012 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.