Single crystals of benzophenone hydrazone (BH) were successfully grown by slow evaporation method at constant temperature, 30 degrees C. The crystal structure of BH has been determined, and it belongs to the noncentrosymmetric space group P2(1). The grown crystal has been characterized by (FT-IR). The optical transition and the lower cutoff wavelength of the BH have been identified by UV-vis-NIR Studies. Thermo gravimetric analysis and differential thermal analysis have been carried Out; the BH was found to be thermally stable up to 104 degrees C. Powder second harmonic generation (SHG) was investigated to explore its nonlinear optical (NLO) properties. The high SHG is due to one dimensional charge transfer between amine and phenyl group. Both the real epsilon(r) and imaginary epsilon(i) components of the dielectric constant have been calculated as functions of photon energy. (C) 2009 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.