Single crystals of semi-organic nonlinear optical material, dibromo bis(triphenylphosphine oxide) cadmium(II) (CdBr(2)(TPPO)(2)) were grown by low temperature solution growth method. The synthesized material was purified by the process of repeated recrystallization. Prepared compound was confirmed using Fourier transform infrared and proton NMR spectral analyses. The unit cell dimensions were determined by single crystal X-ray diffraction studies. Single crystal X-ray diffraction study shows that CdBr(2)(TPPO)(2) crystallizes in the triclinic system. The grown crystal was characterized by UV-vis-NIR and micro hardness studies. The thermal stability of CdBr(2)(TPPO)(2) was estimated from the thermogravimetric and differential thermal analyses. The second harmonic generation efficiency of powdered CdBr(2)(TPPO)(2) was determined for CdBr(2)(TPPO)(2) by the Kurtz and Perry method and is similar to 1.2 times that of potassium dihydrogen phosphate. (C) 2011 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.