Herein we reported the preparation of a new type of ferrocene-based compounds with large conjugated system containing symmetrical aromatic vinyl and Schiff base moieties and the study of their third-order nonlinear optical (NLO) properties. Their third-order NLO properties were measured using femtosecond laser and degenerate four-wave mixing (DFWM) technique. The obtained X-(3), n(2) and gamma values of these molecules were found in the range of 0.998-1.429 x 10(-12) esu,1.847-2.646 x 10(-11) esu and 1.026-1.449 x 10(-30) esu, respectively, The response time ranged from 43.65 fs to 61.71 fs. The results indicate that these compounds have potential nonlinear optical applications. (C) 2016 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.