A novel material,Poly(4,4'-diazobenzene-2,5-thiophene) (PDABTh) was synthesized and its third-order optical nonlinearity was studied using Z-scan technique with 20 ps laser pulse at 1064 nm. We measured the nonlinear refractive index n₂=8.4x10-19 m²/w with positive sign and nonlinear absorption coefficient β=1.8x10^-12 m/w with reverse saturable absorption. The molecular second-order hyperpolarizability was calculated to be 4.2x10^-30 esu. The special Π-electron structure may contribute to these relatively large non-linear optical properties. This suggests that the PDABTh may have a potential application in nonlinear optical devices.

Date Published: 2 February 2009
PDF: 8 pages
Proc. SPIE 7160, 2008 International Conference on Optical Instruments and Technology: Optoelectronic Measurement Technology and Applications, 716030 (2 February 2009); doi: 10.1117/12.810995

Published in SPIE Proceedings Vol. 7160:
2008 International Conference on Optical Instruments and Technology: Optoelectronic Measurement Technology and Applications
Shenghua Ye; Guangjun Zhang; Jun Ni, Editor(s)