An optical article is disclosed containing, for the transmission of electromagnetic radiation, a medium exhibiting a second order polarization susceptibility greater than 10.sup.-9 electrostatic units comprised of polar aligned noncentrosymmetric molecular dipoles having an electron donor moiety linked through a conjugated .pi. bonding system to an electron acceptor moiety to permit oscillation of the molecular dipole between a ground state exhibiting a first dipole moment and an excited state exhibiting a differing dipole moment. The molecular dipoles are held in polar alignment by a crosslinked polymeric binder.