Abstract The electrical and optical properties (dipole moment, electrooptical and optical Kerr constants, molecular polarizability anisotropy, polarizability tensor, molecular refraction) of N, N-dimethylnitramine as the simplest N-NO 2 derivative were studied by a set of experimental and theoretical methods with the aim to determine the components of the polarizability ellipsoid of the N-NO 2 group and develop a valence-optical scheme for ...