INFRARED OPTICAL LIMITING RESPONSE IN DETONATION NANODIAMOND CLUSTERS DISPERSED IN HEAVY WATER V.V. Vanyukov1, T.N. Mogileva2, G.M. Mikheev2, A.P. Puzyr3, V.S. Bondar3, Y.P. Svirko1 1
Institute of Photonics, University of Eastern Finland, Joensuu, Finland 2 Institute of Mechanics, Russian Academy of Science, Izhevsk, Russia 3 Institute of Biophysics, Russian Academy of Sciences, Krasnoyarsk, Russia
[email protected] Nonlinear optical materials have attracted much attention of the optical community due to their capability to attenuate potentially dangerous laser radiation while promptly transmitting low-intensity ambient light. This materials can be used in so called optical limiting (OL) devices capable to avoid laser-induced breakdown of sensitive optical components or human eye. We report on the OL the infrared laser radiation with detonation nanodiamond (ND) clusters and on the dependence of the OL properties on the pump wavelength. In the experiment, we employed suspensions of ND clusters with an average size of 110 nm dispersed in heavy water with concentration 3 wt. %. Heavy water was chosen as a host liquid due to a weak near infrared light absorption. In the OL measurements, we utilized a tunable radiation from 1400 to 1675 nm produced by the optical parametric oscillator/optical parametric amplifier pumped by the second and the first harmonics of Nd: YAG3+ laser. In order to evaluate the nonlinear attenuation effect in the ND clusters as a function of a wavelength the Z-scan technique was utilized [1]. The nanosecond Z-scan results at the energy of the laser pulses 0.2 mJ show the strong attenuation the near infrared laser radiation in ND suspension. The experimental results reveal that the shorter the wavelength, the lower the nonlinear transmittance of the ND suspension, i.e. the greater the attenuation of the incident radiation. Our findings indicate that the decreasing of the nonlinear transmittance of the ND suspension originates from the nonlinear absorption and an increase of the nonlinear light scattering. In conclusion, we demonstrate that ND suspensions show strong OL response at the range of 1400÷1675 nm. Recently we have found that ND suspensions show excellent OL performance at wavelengths of 532 [2] and 1064 nm [3] and hence are promising materials for manufacturing of OL devices capable of operating in a broadband spectrum range. [1] M. Sheik-Bahae, A.A. Said, T.H. Wei, D.J. Hagen, E.W. Van Stryland, IEEE J. Quantum Electron. 26, 760 (1990). [2] V.V. Vanyukov, T.N. Mogileva, G.M. Mikheev, A.P. Puzyr, V.S. Bondar, Y.P. Svirko, Applied Optics 52, 18 (2013). [3] V.V. Vanyukov, G.M. Mikheev, T.N. Mogileva, A.P. Puzyr, V.S. Bondar, Y.P. Svirko, Optical Materials in press, (2014).
