The hyper-Rayleigh scattering technique was applied to measure the first-order hyperpolarizability, beta, of ferroelectric BaTiO3 and PbTiO3 nanoparticles (NPs) dissolved in methanol. The crystalline particles have average diameter of approximate to 50 nm as determined by scanning electron microscopy. A 8 ns pulsed laser operating at 1064 nm was used as the excitation source to generate the second harmonic scattered light. The results show that the per nanoparticle beta value is 10 (24) esu and the beta value per unit volume of NPs is two orders of magnitude larger than that observed for antiferroelectric NaNbO3 nanoparticles. (c) 2008 Elsevier B. V. All rights reserved.