This thesis is concerned with the photophysical and nonlinear optical responses, and applications of a set of conjugated polymers and small molecules in the visible and near-IR spectral regions. Poly(phenylene ethynylene) PPE polymers were substituted with conjugated side-arms in a cruciform fashion to determine the impacts of electronic coupling on the one-photon (1PA), two-photon (2PA), and excited state absorption (ESA) properties of the co-polymer system. The cruciform-like PPEs showed significant changes in their nonlinear and phophysical behavior relative to their linear models, including shifts and splittings of the 1PA bands due to moderate mixing of the lowest singlet excited states, an increase in the 2PA cross section (δ) values, and an increase in the yield of triplet excited-state species. The cruciform-like PPE polymers exhibited effective optical pulse suppression of femtosecond and nanosecond laser pulses over a broad spectral range of ~200 nm in the visible and near-IR. The suppression capability of the cruciform-like PPEs exceeded the best reported value for alkyl-substituted PPE polymers. The spectroscopic effects due to conjugation length, structural configuration, and intramolecular charge transfer (ICT) are discussed for a family of bent donor-acceptor-donor (D-A-D) -type conjugated oligomers, which incorporate electron-rich triarylamine donors and electron-deficient triarylborane acceptor units into its conjugated structure. These organoborane oligomers are highly fluorescent and exhibit strong 2PA in the visible region with δ values as large as 1410 GM, as well as overlapping ESA bands attributed to singlet-singlet and triplet-triplet absorption. Saturation of the molar absorptivity, ε, and δ was observed at less than two repeat monomer units due to conformational disorder in the oligomer with increasing length. Positive solvatochromism of fluorescence with solvent shifts as large as ~70 nm was observed as a result of ICT from the arylamine donors to boryl-centered acceptor sites. The excited-state dynamics also show sensitivity to the solvent environment. Experimental findings suggest that these organoborane oligomers may have potential use as nonlinear material for optical power limiting (OPL) and two-photon sensing applications. The spectral properties of two bis-donor chromophores, (bis(diarylamino)biphenyl (TPD) and distyrylthiophene (DST), were investigated with and without the presence of AgNPs in order to better understand the local-field enhancement and subsequent effects on the photophysics and nonlinear behavior of 2PA dyes. While little changes were observed in the excited-state dynamics, measurements of nanoparticle aggregate-dye composite solutions with TPD revealed a 1.6-enhancement in the two-photon excited fluorescence signal. OPL measurements of nanosecond laser pulses at 532 nm revealed a reduction in threshold energy by a factor of 2 in solutions containing TPD and AgNP aggregates, relative to solutions of TPD alone. DST shows exceptional solubility (>1 M) in several organic solvents and exhibits a 2PA spectrum that overlaps well with its singlet-singlet and triplet-triplet ESA bands. Consequently, DST exhibits effective optical limiting of nanosecond laser pulses through two-photon induced excited-state absorption over a broad spectral range of approximately 200 nm in the red and near-IR.