The third-order nonlinear optical properties of several porphyrin-like metal complexes have been measured by degenerate four-wave mixing at 1. 06 μm with 40 ps pulses. Both the magnitude and dynamics of the nonlinear response are measured, with each system exhibiting the different responses owing to the influence of charge negativityof substituted clusters. Analysis is given for the micromechanism of nonlinearresponses.