Enhanced reverse saturable absorption and optical limiting in heavy-atom-substituted phthalocyanines.
The reverse saturable absorption and the optical-limiting response of metal phthalocyanines can be enhanced by use of the heavy-atom effect. Phthalocyanines containing heavy-metal atoms, such as In, Sn, and Pb, show a nearly factor-of-2 enhancement in the ratio of effective excited-state to ground-state absorption cross sections compared with those containing lighter atoms, such as Al and Si. In an f/8 optical geometry, homogeneous solutions of heavy-metal phthalocyanines, at 30% linear transmission, limit 8-ns 532-nm laser pulses to </=3 microJ (the energy for 50% probability of eye damage) for incident energies as high as 800 microJ.
J W
JW
Perry
K
K
Mansour
S R
SR
Marder
K J
KJ
Perry
D
D
Alvarez
I
I
Choong