A bis-chalcone derivative, p-(N,N-dimethylamino) dibenzylideneacetone was synthesized. Its third-order nonlinear susceptibility was determined to be as high as 10(-12) esu by employing single beam Z-scan and degenerate four wave mixing techniques using Nd:YAG 7 ns laser pulses at 532 nm. The compound was doped in to poly(methylmethacrylate) matrix and the third-order nonlinearity was investigated by using Z-scan technique. The nonlinear refractive index of the doped polymer is found to be negative, and its magnitude is of the order of 10(-10) esu. The results show that the compound exhibits strong reverse saturable absorption and a good optical limiting property and hence may be used as a promising dopant material. The study on concentration dependence of nonlinear optical parameters has been presented. (c) 2007 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.