In the present work, a novel ᴨ- conjugated stilbazolium chromophore of 2-[2-(4-diethylamino-phenyl)-vinyl] -1-methyl pyridinium tetrafluoroborate (DESTB) has been synthesized and grown by slow solvent evaporation technique. Single crystal X-ray diffraction demonstrates that DESTB crystallizes in centrosymmetric monoclinic system with the space group P21/C. The different vibrational modes of DESTB were confirmed by Fourier transform infrared analysis. The thermal properties of DESTB sample were analyzed using TG/DTA techniques. The optical properties of DESTB crystal such as absorbance, photoluminescence, and laser damage threshold have been studied. Further the material is characterized by Z-scan technique with a He-Ne continuous wave laser at 632.8 nm to measure the third order nonlinear optical properties of DESTB crystal. © 2020