A chalcone, 1-(4-chloro phenyl)-3-(4-dimethylamino phenyl) prop-2-en-1 -one, abbreviated as CDAC was synthesized by the Claisen-Schmidt condensation method and single crystals were grown by the slow evaporation technique at ambient temperature. The structural confirmation was done using H-1-NMR, FT-IR, powder XRD and single crystal XRD studies. The crystal crystallizes in the monoclinic space group P2(1)/c with a=33.082(3) angstrom, b=14.4722(13) angstrom, c=6.0799(5) A, alpha=90 degrees, beta=92.030(4)degrees, gamma=90 degrees and Z=8. The high temperature DSC shows a phase transition at temperature 141.53 C that corresponds to the melting point of the crystal. This is confirmed in DTA study which shows an endothermic dip corresponding to this melting point. The optical studies were made with UV-visible and Z-scan techniques. The nonlinear absorption and nonlinear refraction coefficients of the sample were obtained by performing the Z-scan experimental measurements. The real and imaginary parts of third-order bulk susceptibility chi((3)) were evaluated. The coefficient of nonlinear refraction (gamma) of the compound is found to be negative as revealed by the signature of closed aperture data. (C) 2013 Elsevier BY. All rights reserved.