Abstract

We present a single beam Z-scan technique using an intense, broadband, white-light continuum (WLC) beam for the direct measurement of nonlinear absorption spectra. In order to demonstrate the validity of our technique, we compared the results of tetraaniline and Sudan 3 solutions obtained with WLC and conventional single wavelength light sources. Both approaches lead to the same nonlinear spectrum, indicating that the association of the Z-scan technique and the WLC source results in an useful method for the measurement of nonlinear spectra of both absorbing (saturable absorption or reverse saturable absorption) and transparent (two-photon absorption) samples.

© 2004 Optical Society of America

» View Full Text: Acrobat PDF (116 KB)

History
Original Manuscript: June 16, 2004
Revised Manuscript: August 5, 2004
Published: August 23, 2004

References

1. M. Albota, D. Beljone, J. -L. Bredas, J. E. Ehrlich, J. -Y. Fu, A. A. Heikal, S. E. Hess, T. Kogej, M. D. Levin, S. R. Marder, D. McCord-Maughon, J. W. Perry, H. Röckel, M. Rumi, G. Subramanian, W. W. Webb, X. L. Wu, and C. Xu, ཿDesign of organic molecules with large two-photon absorption cross sections,ཿ Science 281, 1653 (1998). [CrossRef]
2. R. A. Negres, J. M. Hales, A. Kobyakov, D. J. Hagan, and E. W. Van Stryland, ཿExperiment and analysis of two-photon spectroscopy using a white-light continuum probe,ཿ IEEE J. Quantum Electron. 38, 1205 (2002). [CrossRef]
3. G. S. He, T. ཿC. Lin, P. N. Prasad, R. Kannan, R. A. Vaia, and L. ཿS. Tan, ཿNew technique for degenerate two-photon absorption spectral measurements using femtosecond continuum generation,ཿ Opt. Express 10, 566 (2002) <a href="http://www.opticsexpress.org/abstract.cfm?URI=OPEX-10-13-566">http://www.opticsexpress.org/abstract.cfm?URI=OPEX-10-13-566</a>.
4. R. R. Alfano, ed., The supercontinuum laser source, (Springer-Verlag, New York, 1989).
5. J. C. Wang and J. K. Wang, ཿExperimental and theoretical analysis of white-light seeded, collinear phasematching, femtosecond optical parametric amplifiers,ཿ J. Opt. Soc. Am B 21, 45 (2004). [CrossRef]
6. M. Bellini and T. W. Hansch, ཿPhase-locked white-light continuum pulses: toward a universal optical frequency-comb synthesizer,ཿ Opt. Lett. 25, 1049 (2000).
7. Y. M. Wang, Y. H. Zhao, J. S. Nelson, Z. P. Chen, and R. S. Windeler, ཿUltrahigh-resolution optical coherence tomography by broadband continuum generation from a photonic crystal fiber,ཿ Opt. Lett. 28, 182 (2003).
8. M. Sheik-Bahae, A. A. Said, T. Wei, D. J. Hagan, and E. W. Van Stryland, ཿSensitive measurement of optical nonlinearities using a single beam,ཿ IEEE J. Quantum Electron. 26, 760 (1990). [CrossRef]
9. C. R. Mendonça, D. S. Santos, L. De Boni, D. T. Balogh, O. N. Oliveira, and S. C. Zilio, ཿDichroism induced by photoisomerization of aniline tetramers in polymeric films,ཿ Adv. Mater. 12, 1126 (2000). [CrossRef]
10. P. L. Franzen, L. De Boni, D. S. Santos, C. R. Mendonça, and S. C. Zilio, ཿDynamic optical nonlinearities in aniline tetramers,ཿ J. Phys. Chem. B (to be published).
11. A. Andrade, S. B. Yamaki, L. Misoguti, S. C. Zilio, Tereza Z. Atvars, O. N. Oliveira, and C. R. Mendonça, ཿTwo-photon absorption in di-azobenzene compounds,ཿ Opt. Mater. (to be published).
12. M. Drobizhev, A. Karotki, M. Kruk, and A. Rebane, ཿResonance enhancement of two-photon absorption in porphyrins,ཿ Chem. Phys. Lett. 355, 175 (2002). [CrossRef]
13. K. Kamada, K. Ohta, I. Yoichiro, and K. Kondo, ཿTwo-photon absorption properties of symmetric substituted diacetylene: drastic enhancement of the cross section near the one-photon absorption peak,ཿ Chem. Phys. Lett. 372, 386 (2003). [CrossRef]

Author Affiliations

Leonardo De Boni, Acácio Andrade, Lino Misoguti, Cléber Mendonça, Sérgio Zilio

Universidade de São Paulo

Cited By

OSA is able to provide readers links to articles that cite this paper by participating in CrossRef's Cited-By Linking service. CrossRef includes content from more than 3000 publishers and societies. In addition to listing OSA journal articles that cite this paper, citing articles from other participating publishers will also be listed.