A comparative study of the nonlinear optical properties of molecular J- and H-aggregates in thin films

A comparative study of the dispersion of nonlinear absorption in thin films of molecular J- and H-aggregates of polymethine dyes was performed with the use of the Z-scan (Z-scan technique) over the range 625–825 nm under conditions close to resonance absorption at nanosecond duration of excitation. The measurements were made on film samples of J- and H-aggregates prepared by spin-coating and having identical absorption spectra. The H- and J-aggregates were formed by the synthetic thioflavylium DT-3 and benzothiazole BTC18H dyes, respectively. It was found that the samples of different types of aggregates exhibit nonlinear susceptibility of the same order of magnitude with allowance for the width of exciton absorption peaks.