Effect of self assembly on the nonlinear optical characteristics of ZnO thin films

In the present work, we report the third order nonlinear optical properties of ZnO thin films deposited using self assembly, sol gel process as well as pulsed laser ablation by z scan technique. ZnO thin films clearly exhibit a negative nonlinear index of refraction at 532 nm and the observed nonlinear refraction is attributed to two photon absorption followed by free carrier absorption. Although the absolute nonlinear values for these films are comparable, there is a change in the sign of the absorptive nonlinearity of the films. The films developed by dip coating and pulsed laser ablation exhibit reverse saturable absorption whereas the self assembled film exhibits saturable absorption. These different nonlinear characteristics in the self assembled films can be mainly attributed to the saturation of linear absorption of the ZnO defect states.

Nd:Glass laser-induced damage to thin films, two-photon excited fluorescence and plasma studies

Laser-induced damage is the principal limiting constraint in the design and operation of high-power laser systems used in fusion and other high-energy laser applications. Therefore, an understanding of the mechanisms which cause the radiation damage to the components employed in building a laser and a knowledge of the damage threshold of these materials are of great importance in designing a laser system and to operate it without appreciable degradation in performance. This thesis, even though covers three distinct problems for investigations using a dye Q-switched multimode Nd:glass laser operating at 1062 nm and emitting 25 ns (FWHM) pulses, lays its main thrust on damage threshold studies on thin films. Using the same glass laser two-photon excited fluorescence in rhodamine 6G and generation and characterisation of a carbon plasma have also been carried out. The thesis is presented in seven chapters.

Nd:Glass Laser-Induced Damage To Thin Films, Two-Photon Excited Fluorescence And Plasma Studies

Laser-induced damage is the principal limiting constraint in the design and operation of high-power laser systems used in fusion and other high-energy laser applications. Therefore, an understanding of the mechanisms which cause the radiation damage to the components employed in building a laser and a knowledge of the damage threshold of these materials are of great importance in designing a laser system and to operate it without appreciable degradation in performance. This thesis, even though covers three distinct problems for investigations using a dye Q-switched multimode Nd:glass laser operating at 1062 nm and emitting 25 ns (FWHM) pulses, lays its main thrust on damage threshold studies on thin films. Using the same glass laser two-photon excited fluorescence in rhodamine 6G and generation and characterisation of a carbon plasma have also been carried out.

Thermo- Optic and Nonlinear-Optical studies on CdSe Quantum Dots for Photonic Applications

In general, linear- optic, thermo- optic and nonlinear- optical studies on CdSe QDs based nano uids and their special applications in solar cells and random lasers have been studied in this thesis. Photo acous- tic and thermal lens studies are the two characterization methods used for thermo- optic studies whereas Z- scan method is used for nonlinear- optical charecterization. In all these cases we have selected CdSe QDs based nano uid as potential photonic material and studied the e ect of metal NPs on its properties. Linear optical studies on these materials have been done using vari- ous characterization methods and photo induced studies is one of them. Thermal lens studies on these materials give information about heat transport properties of these materials and their suitability for applica- tions such as coolant and insulators. Photo acoustic studies shows the e ect of light on the absorption energy levels of the materials. We have also observed that these materials can be used as optical limiters in the eld of nonlinear optics. Special applications of these materials have been studied in the eld of solar cell such as QDSSCs, where CdSe QDs act as the sensitizing materials for light harvesting. Random lasers have many applications in the eld of laser technology, in which CdSe QDs act as scattering media for the gain.

Two-photon decay of the 1s2s ^1S_0 state in _36Kr^34+ produced by resonant transfer and excitation

The doubly excited 2s2p ^1P_1 level of Kr^{34+} populated via resonant transfer and excitation (RTE) feeds selectively the metastable ls2s ^1 S_0 state which can only decay via simultaneous emission of two photons to the ground state 1s^2 ^1 S_0. X-ray/X-ray coincidence measurements in heavy ionatom collisions enable the direct measurement of the spectral distribution of the two-photon decay in He-like ions. In addition, we observe strong photon cascades indueed by radiative electron capture.

Purity and entanglement of two-photon polarization states generated by spontaneous parametric down-conversion

We elucidate the dependence of purity and entanglement of two-photon states generated by spontaneous parametric down-conversion on the parameters of the source, such as crystal length, pump beam divergence, frequency bandwidth, and detectors angular aperture. The effect of crystal anisotropy is taken into account. Numerical simulations are presented for two types of commonly used source configurations. (C) 2009 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.

Excited-state absorption spectroscopy in oxidized Cytochrome c

This work reports on the excited-state absorption spectrum of oxidized Cytochrome c (Fe(3+)) dissolved in water, measured with the Z-scan technique with femtosecond laser pulses. The excited-state absorption cross-sections between 460 and 560 nm were determined with the aid of a three-energy-level model. Reverse saturable absorption was observed below 520 nm, while a saturable absorption process occurs in the Q-band, located around 530 nm. Above 560 nm, a competition between saturable absorption and two-photon absorption was inferred. These results show that Cytochrome c presents distinct nonlinear behaviors, which may be useful to study electron transfer chemistry in proteins by one- and two-photon absorption. In addition, owing to these nonlinear optical features, this molecule may be employed in applications involving photodynamics therapy and saturable absorbers. (C) 2009 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.

Nonlinear spectrum effect on the coherent control of molecular systems

This work demonstrates that the detuning of the fs-laser spectrum from the two-photon absorption band of organic materials can be used to reach further control of the two-photon absorption by pulse spectral phase manipulation. We investigate the coherent control of the two-photon absorption in imidazole-thiophene core compounds presenting distinct two-photon absorption spectra. The coherent control, performed using pulse phase shaping and genetic algorithm, exhibited different growth rates for each sample. Such distinct trends were explained by calculating the two-photon absorption probability considering the intrapulse interference mechanism, taking into account the two-photon absorption spectrum of the samples. Our results indicate that tuning the relative position between the nonlinear absorption and the pulse spectrum can be used as a novel strategy to optimize the two-photon absorption in broadband molecular systems. (C) 2011 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.

Selective excitation through tapered silica fibers of fluorescent two-photon polymerized structures

Two-photon polymerization has emerged as a powerful tool to design complex three-dimensional microstructures for applications ranging from biology to nanophotonics. To broaden the application spectrum of such microstructures, different materials have been incorporated to the polymers, aiming at specific applications. In this paper we report the fabrication of microstructures containing rhodamine 610, which display strong fluorescence upon one- and two-photon excitation. The latter increases light-penetration depth and spatial selectivity of luminescence. We also demonstrate that by using silica submicrometric wires we were able to select individual microstructures to be excited, which could be explored for designing microstructure-based optical circuits.

Matter-wave two-dimensional solitons in crossed linear and nonlinear optical lattices

Fundação de Amparo à Pesquisa do Estado de São Paulo (FAPESP)

Nonlinear optical properties of tungstate fluorophosphate glasses

The optical nonlinearity of tungstate fluorophosphate glasses, synthesized in the NaPO3-BaF2-WO3 system, was investigated through experiments based on the third-order susceptibility, chi((3)). Nonlinear (NL) refraction and NL absorption measurements in the picosecond regime were performed using the Z-scan technique at 532 nm. NL refractive index, n(2)proportional toRe chi((3)), ranging from 0.4x10(-14) cm(2)/W to 0.6x10(-14) cm(2)/W were determined. The two-photon absorption coefficient, alpha(2)proportional toIm chi((3)), for excitation at 532 nm, vary from 0.3 to 0.5 cm/GW. Light induced birefringence experiments performed in the femtosecond regime indicate that the response time of the nonlinearity at 800 nm is faster than 100 fs. The experiments show that chi((3)) is enhanced when the WO3 concentration increases and this behavior is attributed to the hyperpolarizabilities associated to W-O bonds. (C) 2004 American Institute of Physics.

Periodic waves and solitons of two-photon propagation

We study the two-photon propagation (TPP) modelling equations. The one-phase periodic solutions are obtained in an effective form. Their modulation is investigated by means of the Whitham method. The theory developed is applied to the problem of creation of TPP solitons on the sharp front of a long pulse.

Control of nonlinear absorption and amplification of light in Er3+-doped fluoroindate glass

Nonlinear absorption and amplification of a probe laser beam can be controlled by adjustment of the intensity-modulation frequency and the wavelength of a pump laser beam. A demonstration of this effect in Er3+-doped fluoroindate glass is presented. The results show maximum amplification of the probe beam (∼12%) when a pump laser emitting 16 mW of power is modulated at ∼30 Hz. In the limit of low modulation frequencies, or cw pumping, induced absorption of the probe beam is the dominant nonlinear process. © 1999 Optical Society of America.

Study of exclusive two-photon production of W+W- in pp collisions at √s=7 TeV and constraints on anomalous quartic gauge couplings

A search for exclusive or quasi-exclusive W+W- production by photon-photon interactions, pp → p(*)W +W-p(*), at √s=7 TeV is reported using data collected by the CMS detector with an integrated luminosity of 5.05 fb-1. Events are selected by requiring a μ ±e∓ vertex with no additional associated charged tracks and dilepton transverse momentum p T(μ ±e∓) > 30 GeV. Two events passing all selection requirements are observed in the data, compared to a standard model expectation of 2.2 ± 0.4 signal events with 0.84 ± 0.15 background. The tail of the dilepton p T distribution is studied for deviations from the standard model. No events are observed with p T > 100 GeV. Model-independent upper limits are computed and compared to predictions involving anomalous quartic gauge couplings. The limits on the parameters α0,C W/λ2 with a dipole form factor and an energy cutoff Λcutoff = 500 GeV are of the order of 10-4. © 2013 CERN for the benefit of the CMS collaboration.

Near-infrared nonlinearity of a multicomponent tellurium oxide glass at 800 and 1,064 nm

We report on the nonlinear (NL) optical properties of glassy TeO2-GeO2-K2O-Bi2O3 at lambda = 800 nm and lambda = 1,064 nm. Using the Kerr gate technique with a laser delivering 150 fs pulses at 800 nm, we demonstrated the fast NL response of the samples. The modulus of the NL refractive index, n (2), at 800 nm was similar to 10(-15) cm(2)/W. The Z-scan technique was used to determine n (2) a parts per thousand +10(-15) cm(2)/W, at 1,064 nm with pulses of 17 ps. The two-photon absorption coefficient, alpha (2), was smaller than the minimum that we can measure (< 0.003 cm/GW). The figure of merit n (2)/alpha (2) lambda was calculated and indicates that this glass composition has large potential to be used for all-optical switching.