High-contrast all-optical switching with Pt:ethynyl complex

We have theoretically analyzed all-optical switching in Pt:ethynyl complex based on nonlinear excited-state absorption. A detailed analysis for Pt:ethynyl complex has been presented based on rate equation approach. It is shown that a pulsed pump laser beam at 355 nm switches the transmission of a cw probe laser beam at 633 nm through a Pt:ethynyl sample. The effect of various parameters, such as pump pulse width, peak pumping intensity, normalized parameter , transition times of S₁→S₀ and S₁→T₁ states and lifetime of triplet state, on switching characteristics has been analyzed in detail. It has been shown that the probe beam can be completely switched off (i.e. 100% modulation) by a pulsed pump laser beam at 50 kW/cm². These results have been used to design all-optical NOT and the universal NOR and NAND logic gates with multiple pump laser pulses.