An optical article, for the transmission of electromagnetic radiation. The optical article includes a medium, which exhibits a second-order electric susceptibility greater than 10.sup.-9 electrostatic units. The medium includes polar aligned dipole subunits. Each dipole subunit has a plurality of noncentrosymmetric molecular dipoles and a connector system. Each molecular dipole has an electron donor moiety, an electron acceptor moiety, and a linking moiety. The linking moiety has a pair of covalent bonds to the connector system. Each molecular dipole has a conjugated .pi. bonding system extending from the electron donor moiety along the linking moiety to the electron acceptor moiety to permit oscillation of the molecular dipole between a ground state and an excited state, which states differ in polarity. The connector system joins the linking moieties to complete a solitary ring or a system of fused rings, which retain the molecular dipoles in substantially parallel relative relation.