Phthalocyanines, Porphycenes, and Corroles are macromolecules with large number of delocalized π electrons. The magnitude of response of these loosely bound electrons to short laser pulses determines their applicability in various applications such as optical limiting, optical single processing etc. A meticulous understanding of their performance using different pulses and at various wavelengths is indispensable to extract their accurate potential. Herein, we try to compare and contrast the nonlinear optical performance of these molecules in the ns, ps, and fs time domains. The nonlinear optical coefficients and figure of merits were estimated from the Z-scan data using different pulses over a range of input wavelengths. Ultrafast excited state dynamics of these molecules were studied using the pump-probe and degenerate four wave mixing techniques. A review of all the results obtained is presented.

Date Published: 16 May 2012
PDF: 10 pages
Proc. SPIE 8434, Nonlinear Optics and Applications VI, 84341B (16 May 2012);

Published in SPIE Proceedings Vol. 8434:
Nonlinear Optics and Applications VI
Benjamin J. Eggleton; Alexander L. Gaeta; Neil G. Broderick, Editor(s)