Optical bistability in Coumarin-450 doped polymeric samples

Experimental observations of optical bistability in Coumarin-450 dye molecule entrapped in polymeric (PMMA) host inside Fabry–Perot cavity have been reported. Efforts have been made to demonstrate the nonlinear behavior of optical materials in solid form using 532 nm of Nd: YAG laser. The nonlinearity in terms of optical bistability and excited state absorption (ESA) has been discussed. The nonlinearity in Coumarin-450 dye molecule originated from unique intensity dependence of the complex index of refraction. It has been observed that nonlinear refraction dominates over nonlinear absorption in giving rise to the optical bistability. Nonlinear refractive index in both polymeric and liquid samples has been calculated.     

Z-scan studies and optical limiting of nanosecond laser pulses in neutral red dye

The nonlinear optical absorption, refraction and optical limiting behaviour of an organic dye, neutral red, were investigated under excitation with nanosecond laser pulses at 532 nm. The nonlinear optical responses of the material were studied both in solution and solid film, made in methanol and polyvinyl alcohol, respectively, using single-beam Z-scan technique. The open aperture Z-scans of the solution samples displayed a switch over from saturable absorption to enhanced absorption with increase in input intensity. Theoretical fit to the experimental data indicated that the dominant mechanism of nonlinear absorption is two-photon absorption. The closed aperture Z-scans of both the samples denoted positive nonlinearity, which was three orders larger in magnitude in solid film, compared with that in solution. The results of optical limiting experiments revealed that neutral red exhibited strong optical limiting of nanosecond laser pulses with a threshold lower than that of C₆₀ in toluene.     

Comparative photophysical and energy transfer studies of C480:C535 binary dye mixture in solid and liquid environments

The spectral behaviour of the individual dyes (C480 and C535) is discussed. The absorption and fluorescence spectral profiles of the dyes, in solid and liquid environments, are identical. Dye doped polymer rods of donor dye (C480) without the acceptor dye (C535), acceptor dye (C535) without the donor dye (C480) and donor dye with acceptor dye at different acceptor concentrations are synthesized. Energy transfer technique is studied, in detail, using these rods. The results obtained are compared with their respective liquid mixtures. Optical gain of the acceptor dye with and without the donor dye is determined experimentally, in both solid and liquid media. The gain of the acceptor with donor increases and then decreases with increase in acceptor concentration. Both solid and liquid media show similar trends. But, the gain coefficient in the solid matrix is less than that in the liquid medium. The photobleaching of the dye doped polymer rod under nitrogen laser excitation is studied.     

Synthesis and spectroscopic characterization of Kiton Red-620 dye doped silica gel rods

The work was carried out to achieve two different but interdependent objectives; one to synthesis a transparent silica matrix with enough strength and thermal stability, by sol–gel technique, to host an organic dye molecule without quenching its fluorescence and two to find the probability if the said material is suitable for the construction of solid state dye lasers. Crack-free transparent silica gel rods with good mechanical strength, thermal stability and dimensions were successfully synthesized by sol–gel techniques. The rods were doped with Kiton Red-620 dye in different concentration separately. Effect of various synthesis parameters like time, temperature and aging condition was extensively studied to obtain crack-free silica rods doped with dye. Optical properties of prepared rods were studied by FTIR, UV/VIS–NIR and fluorescence spectroscopy. It is observed that Kiton Red-620 dye doped silica gel rods show good fluorescence with sharp peaks in the visible range. Their UV–VIS spectrum indicates the absorption in visible range. Thermal stability of rods were studied by DSC/TGA methods. Eventually it is found that these dye doped silica gel materials explore the possibility for new solid-state dye laser materials.     

Photo-physical properties and quantum yield of some laser dyes in new polymer host

The field of laser dyes-active solid polymer materials is a promising field and quite competitive with liquid dye lasers. This paper investigates some photo-physical parameters of pyromethene (PM-567, PM-597) and Rhodamine B dyes incorporated into glycidyl methacrylate (GMA) promising polymeric host matrix. These parameters are: absorption and emission cross-sections, fluorescence lifetime and quantum yield, in addition to FT-Raman spectra as an indication for binding the dye molecules with the backbones of GMA polymeric chain.     

Solid-state dye lasers based on PMMA co-doped with PM597 and PM650

In order to enhance the laser performances, solid-state samples based on polymethyl methacrylate (PMMA) co-doped with pyrromethene 597 (PM597) and pyrromethene 650 (PM650) were prepared. With SHG of Q-switched Nd:YAG laser (532 nm, ∼15 ns) pumping the samples, laser emission from the mixtures of PM597 and PM650 both in liquid solution and incorporated into solid polymeric matrices were investigated. The highest slope efficiency of co-doped solid-state dye samples 30.8% was achieved. Through the dye PM650 being co-doped into the dye PM597, the dye laser output wavelength was extended for the existence of energy transfer from the dye PM597 to the dye PM650.     

Spectroscopic and lasing properties of Xanthene dyes encapsulated in silica and polymeric matrices

The photo-physical properties of Xanthene dyes: Basic Rhodamine Yellow (BRY), Rhodamine590perchlorate (R590p), SulforhodamineB (SRB) doped in tetramethylorthosilicate (TMOS) and poly-methylmethacrylate (PMMA) are observed. The various parameters viz. full-width at half-maxima (FWHM), peak emission wavelength, quantum yield and excited state lifetime at different concentrations ranging from ∼0.05 to ∼1 mM of the dye under excitation by Copper Vapor Laser (CVL) of high repetition rate (∼5.6 kHz) of are investigated. In order to identify photostability in dyes, normalized photostability has been studied and found that silica gel samples containing dye are more stable than that of polymeric samples. This has been further understood in terms of number density of unbleached dye molecules that infers that photobleaching of dye molecules is not prominent at higher concentrations in glassy solid matrices. Pump intensity dependent optical gain of the samples has also been reported and efforts have been made to study the efficiency of solid-state laser samples in a cavity for the performance of the dye laser.     

Third order nonlinear optical studies of bromocresol purple in liquid and solid media

The quest for materials exhibiting high nonlinear refraction and absorption are required for photonic device application. In this paper we report a simplified Z-scan technique, to study the optical nonlinearity of the dye bromocresol purple in methanol and ethanol for different concentration and dye doped polymer film at the wavelength 532 nm of Nd:YAG laser. The experimental results show that the investigated organic dye molecule exhibits saturation absorption and negative nonlinearity. The nonlinear absorption co-efficient and the nonlinear refractive index were measured for the dye doped film, and for dye in methanol and ethanol at the concentration of 0.03 mM and 0.05 mM. The measured third order susceptibility was found to be of the order of 10⁻⁶ e.s.u. in both solid and liquid medium. The result shows that the dye has potential applications in nonlinear optics.     

Optical bistability in fluorescein dyes

Optical bistability has been observed in highly concentrated fluorescein dye solutions and in thin (1 m) doped polymeric films. At concentrations larger than 10^–5 mole/l dye dimers are formed. For fluorescein dye, the dimer-monomer equilibrium constant is 10⁵ l/mole so that most of the dye species are in the dimer form. At 480 nm the dimer absorption cross section is 10^–18 cm²/molecule, while that for the dye monomer molecule is 7.6×10^–17 cm²/molecule. Upon laser excitation dimers dissociate to form monomers thus providing a highly nonlinear laser induced absorption. This high nonlinear absorption coefficient can be utilized for optically bistable response of the dye system.Optical bistability was observed by placing dye solutions or dye thin films inside a Fabry-Perot resonator and exciting it with 480 nm dye laser pulses of 10 ns duration. The effect is more pronounced in 10^–4 mole/l fluorescein than in 10^–6 mole/l fluorescein in which dimer formation is not that efficient.In disodium fluorescein no significant dimer formation is observed even at 10^–3 mole/l dye concentration. The observed bistability both in solution and in thin films can be explained in terms of recent models for optical bistability in nonlinearly absorbing molecular systems.     

Gain studies of coumarin 307 dye doped polymer laser

Solid state dye doped polymer is an attractive alternative to the conventional liquid dye solution. In this paper the laser characteristics of coumarin 307 (C307) doped polymethyl methacrylate rods modified with dioxane are studied under nitrogen laser excitation in a transverse pumping configuration and the variation of gain of the dye in solid medium for different pumping powers is studied. The photobleaching of dye doped polymer rod is also studied.     

Measurement of nonlinear properties and optical limiting ability of Rhodamine6G doped silica and polymeric samples

The third order nonlinear optical properties of Rhodamine6G (Rh6G) doped silica and polymeric samples have been investigated using single beam z-scan technique under excitation by the second harmonic of Nd:YAG laser beam (532 nm). The nonlinear refractive index, nonlinear absorption coefficient, real and imaginary parts of third order nonlinear susceptibility in the samples of silica and poly-methylmethacrylate (PMMA) matrices are measured. Thermal contribution to the nonlinear refractive index in case of undoped silica samples has been calculated in order to have better accuracy of the material response contribution to third order nonlinearity. The comparative study of the optical limiting performance of Rh6G doped silica and polymeric samples show that Rh6G doped silica is relatively superior for optical limiting applications.     

Thermally induced nonlinear optical response and optical power limiting of acid blue 40 dye

We report the investigations of thermally induced third-order nonlinear optical and optical limiting characterizations for various concentrations of acid blue 40 dye in N,N-Dimethyl Formamide, studied by employing z-scan technique under cw He–Ne laser irradiation at 633 nm wavelength. The samples exhibited nonlinear absorption and nonlinear refraction under the experimental conditions. For lower concentration, the samples display both saturable absorption (SA) and reverse saturable absorption (RSA); whereas with increase in concentration, RSA behaviour prevails. The estimated values of the effective coefficients of nonlinear absorption β_eff, nonlinear refraction n₂ and third-order nonlinear susceptibility χ⁽³⁾ were found to be of the order of 10^?2 cm/W, 10^?4 esu and 10^?6 esu respectively. Multiple diffraction rings were observed when the samples were exposed to laser beam due to refractive index change and thermal lensing. The effect of concentration and the laser intensity on the self-diffraction ring patterns was studied experimentally. The acid blue 40 dye also exhibited strong optical limiting properties under cw excitation and reverse saturable absorption is found to be the dominant nonlinear optical process leading to the observed nonlinear behaviour.     

Nonlinear responses and optical limiting behavior of Basic Violet 16 dye under CW laser illumination

Nonlinear optical properties of Basic Violet 16 dye solution in water are studied employing different optical techniques. Experiments are performed using the second harmonic of a continuous Nd-Yag laser beam at 532 nm wavelength and 100 mW power. The effect of nonlinearity of Basic Violet 16 dye in broadening the laser beam is observed. The optical limiting behavior is investigated by measuring the transmission of the samples. The third-order nonlinearity, χ³ of Basic Violet 16 dye, is measured using Z-scan data. The nonlinear absorption coefficient is calculated using the open aperture Z-scan data, while its nonlinear refractive index is measured using the closed aperture Z-scan data. All experiments are done for different concentrations and thicknesses of Basic Violet 16 dye solution. The effect of intensity of input laser beam on the nonlinear susceptibility is studied experimentally. Results indicate that Basic Violet 16 dye is a potential candidate for low-power optical limiting applications.     

Photophysical characterization of pyrromethene 597 laser dye in silicon-containing organic matrices

Samples of dipyrromethene-BF₂ dye PM597 incorporated in copolymers of 3-(trimethoxysilyl)propyl methacrylate (TMSPMA) with methyl methacrylate (MMA) and 2-hydroxyethylmethacrylate (HEMA), and in terpolymers of MMA, HEMA and TMSPMA are characterized. The absorption cross-section spectra, stimulated emission cross-section spectra, and the excited-state absorption cross-section at 527 nm are determined. The fluorescence quantum distributions and fluorescence lifetimes are measured. The photo-degradation is studied under cw laser excitation conditions and quantum yields of photo-degradation are extracted. PM597 solid state samples are compared with PM597 in liquid ethyl acetate solution. The fluorescence quantum yield of PM597 is higher in doped samples (around 70%) compared to PM597 in ethyl acetate (43%). The excited-state absorption cross-section was found to be negligibly small. The photo-stability is considerably larger in the polymeric samples compared to the liquid solutions. PACS 42.55.-f; 78.45.+h; 78.55.-m; 78.40.Me     

Optical limiting properties of zinc phthalocyanines in solution and solid PMMA composite films

The nonlinear absorption and optical limiting (OL) performance of tetra- and octasubstituted zinc phthalocyanine complexes were described in solution and in the solid state using the open-aperture Z-scan technique. The measurements were performed using collimated 4 ns pulses generated from a frequency-doubled Nd:YAG laser at 532 nm wavelength. The polymeric films exhibit a much larger effective nonlinear absorption coefficient in comparison with solution. However, the parameters of the ratio of the excited to ground state absorption cross section and energy-dependent saturation in solution are much better compared to properties in the polymeric film. In terms of the ratio of the excited to ground state absorption cross section, the peripherally substituted complexes show better OL performance than the non-peripherally substituted derivative.     

Gain studies of Coumarin 503 dye-doped polymer laser

Solid-state dye doped polymer is an attractive alternative to the conventional liquid dye solution. In this paper, the laser characteristics of Coumarin 503 (C503) doped polymethyl methacrylate (PMMA) rods modified with ethyl alcohol (EtOH) are studied under nitrogen laser excitation in a transverse pumping configuration and the variation of gain of the dye in solid medium for different pumping powers is studied. The gain of Coumarin 503 in solid medium is compared with the gain of Coumarin 503 in liquid medium and it is found that the gain of the dyes in the solid environment is less than that in the liquid environment. The photobleaching of dye in polymer medium under nitrogen laser excitation is also studied by keeping the rod in a fixed position and by rotating the rod about its cylindrical axis. It is found that the photobleaching rate is faster when the rod is in a fixed position.     

PM567-Doped solid dye lasers based on PMMA

Polymers are a kind of attractive hosts for laser dyes due to their high transparency in both pumping and lasing ranges and superior optical homogeneity. In this paper solid dye samples based on polymethyl methacrylate (PMMA) doped with different concentrations of 1, 3, 5, 7, 8 -pentamethyl-2, 6-diethylpyrromethene-BF$_{2 }$ (PM567) are prepared. The absorption, fluorescence and lasing spectra of the samples are obtained. Wide absorption and fluorescence bands are obtained and a red shift of the maxima of the lasing emission spectra is observed. With the second-harmonic generation of Q-switched Nd:YAG laser (532\,nm, $\sim $20\,ns) pumping the samples longitudinally, the slope efficiencies of the samples are obtained. There is an optimal dye concentration for the highest slope efficiency when the pumping energy is lower than some typical value ($\sim $250\,mJ), and the highest slope efficiency 35.6{\%} is obtained in the sample with a dye concentration of $2\times10^{ - 4}$\,mol/L. Pumping the samples at a rate of 10Hz with a pulse energy as high as 200\,mJ (the fluence is 0.2\,J/cm$^{2})$, the output energy drops to one-half of its initial value after approximate 15500 pulses and the normalized photostability is 5.17\,GJ/mol. A kind of solid dye laser which could have some applications is built.     

共轭有机高聚物PPQ薄膜的双光子吸收

在 532 nm波长处测量了共轭高聚物 PPQ薄膜的三阶光学非线性参数 ,发现其较强的非线性 (双光子 )吸收系数β≈ 0 . 59cm/ MW。其非线性折射率系数 n2 ≈ 9. 5× 10 -10 esu,认为这是双光子激发的纯电子响应。并对材料的品质因素进行了评估。     

Large third-order optical nonlinearities in brilliant green solutions induced by CW He-Ne laser

Laser induced third-order nonlinear optical responses of Brilliant Green solution (which belongs to triphenylmethane organic dye group) was investigated by utilizing single beam Z-scan technique using a continuous wave He-Ne laser at the wavelength of 632.8 nm. It was observed that the material exhibits self-defocusing and saturation absorption type optical nonlinearity behavior. The measurements of the real and imaginary parts of the third-order nonlinear optical susceptibility were carried out at several incident laser irradiations and different dye concentrations. It was found that the increase in any of the incident laser intensity or solution concentration leads to the linear increase of the nonlinear refractive index. The obtained values of the third-order nonlinearities of Brilliant Green solutions are amongst the highest reported CW regimes, to the best of our knowledge. This study shows a great potential of the Brilliant Green for the application in nonlinear optical devices.     

宽带输出PM580掺杂聚甲基丙烯酸甲酯固体染料激光器研究

采用高效激光染料PM580作为掺杂物质,聚甲基丙烯酸甲酯(PMMA)作为基质,在对固体染料光谱特性研究的基础上,重点研究了调Q倍频Nd:YAG抽运下不同染料掺杂浓度的固体染料激光输出特性.研究结果表明掺杂浓度对输出激光波长影响明显,随着掺杂浓度的增加,激光输出波长红移,从激光增益出发,对该现象给出了理论解释.掺杂浓度对激光转化效率也有影响,当掺杂浓度为2×10^－4mol/L时,获得染料激光输出斜率效率最高达53.8%,抽运能量410mJ时,获得染料激光输出220mJ,激光带宽～8nm 关键词： 固体染料 宽带染料激光 PM580 聚甲基丙烯酸甲酯