A femtosecond differential optical Kerr gate (DOKG) and Z-scan techniques, have been applied to investigate the third-order optical nonlinearity of composite film of the coordination complex [PdLPPh3] (L=N-(2-pyridyl)-N'-(salicylidene)hydrazine, PPh3=triphenylphosphine). Film exhibits superior nonlinear optical properties in the near-infrared spectral region. The nonlinear response time and third-order nonlinear optical susceptibility of complex were found to be <= 90 fs and 3.9 x 10(-10) esu, respectively. The Z-scan result shows that saturable absorption property of the film and its nonlinear absorption coefficient of the sample was found to be -23 cm/GW. (C) 2011 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved