Superior nonlinear optical and optical limiting properties of cross-linked and thermally stable HiPCO-SWCNTs@PVA films

Abstract We present non-linear optical (NLO) and optical limiting (OL) properties of high pressure catalytic CO single-walled carbon nanotubes (HiPCO-SWCNTs) immobilized inside cross-linked poly vinyl alcohol (PVA) using 1 wt% sodium dodecylbenzene sulfonate (SDBS) as surfactant and plasticizer. The content of HiPCO-SWCNTs was changed to be 0.05, 0.1, 0.2 and 0.3 wt%. The NLO properties were investigated using open aperture Z-scan method with nanosecond Nd:YAG pulsed laser at 532 nm and 1064 nm in Q-switched mode. The nonlinear absorption coefficient β and third order nonlinear susceptibility χ3 were calculated. The results show that all HiPCO-SWCNTs@PVA film exhibit reverse saturable absorption (RSA) at both 532 and 1064 nm laser excitations, expect the 0.05 wt% HiPCO-SWCNTs@PVA at 1064 nm showed saturable absorption (SA) behavior. The 0.3 wt% HiPCO-SWCNTs@PVA film showed lower OL threshold than other films at both 532 nm and 1064 nm and increased the critical value of laser fluence damage for a commercial CCD camera ≈10 times. The remarkable OL enhancement was attributed the enhanced thermal conductivity and thermal stability of the 0.3 wt% HiPCO-SWCNTs@PVA film.