The equilibrium geometries, electronic structures, as well as one- and two-photon absorption cross sections of a series of octupolar chromophores with Zn2+ or Cu+ as coordinate centers and 4,48-bis(dibutylaminostyryl)-[2,2']-bis(bipyridyl) as ligands have been determined by using B3LYP/6-31G and ZINDO methods. These molecules are designed by controlled combination of two or three bipyridyl ligands with the metal centers. The results show that Zn2+ is an effective template for the design of octupolar structures which enable it to form tetrahedral and octahedral coordinated complexes; while Cu+ only exists in a tetrahedral coordinated complex, comparing the tetrahedral complex with Zn2+ as the center with that of Cu+ as the center, it is found that the complex with the Cu+ center is a better two-photon absorption material than the former as far as the transparency/nonlinearity is concerned. Furthermore, for the same metal center of Zn2+, both one-and two-photon absorptions of the tetrahedral complex are redshifted relative to those of the octahedral complex, is attributed to the spiroconjugation effect in the tetrahedral complex. Our theoretical findings are consistent with recent experimental observations and provide an important foundation for the design of improved transparency-nonlinearity two-photon absorption materials. (C) 2004 American Institute of Physics.