The linear and nonlinear optical properties of the 3-methyl-4-nitropyridine-1-oxyde (POM) crystal have been evaluated using semiempirical quantum chemistry techniques. The scheme includes (i) the evaluation of the polarizability and first hyperpolarizability of increasingly large one-dimensional, two-dimensional, and three-dimensional clusters of POM, (ii) the use of the time-dependent Hartree-Fock approach to determine the static and dynamic responses in combination with semiempirical Austin model 1 Hamiltonian, (iii) the assessment, for the POM monomer and dimer, of the electron correlation effects using second-order Moller-Plesset perturbation theory with several basis sets containing polarization and diffuse functions, (iv) the assessment of the validity of the multiplicative scheme and its application to get effective polarizability and first hyperpolarizability of the POM unit cell in the crystal, (v) the use of a sum-over-states approach to attribute the first hyperpolarizability to a dominant charge-transfer excited state, and (vi) comparison with experimental data as well as with calculated values obtained using the oriented gas approximation. (C) 2004 American Institute of Physics.