Abstract
Progress in making effective optical limiting devices requires careful characterization of the material nonlinearitics as well as modeling of the propagation of optical beams through the material. We present a method to study the spectral properties of the nonlinear response as well as the results of modeling nanosecond pulse propagation in optically absorbing media. We specifically look at two-photon absorbing and reverse saturable absorbing materials in liquid hosts. The characterization technique is an excitation-femtosecond continuum probe technique. The modeling includes beam propagation through thick media (i.e. thickness much greater than the diffraction length or depth of focus) and includes the effects of index changes associated with acoustic waves generated by any absorption process. This requires a simultaneous solution to the acoustic and electromagnetic wave equations. A graphical user interface to a C++ numerical code has been developed for modeling such devices including the possibility of multiple nonlinear elements. We have extended this code for a tight focusing geometry beyond the paraxial ray approximation, but assuming cylindrical symmetry.
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Van Stryland, E.W., Kovsh, D.I., Negres, R., Hagan, D.J., Dubikovsky, V., Belfield, K. (2000). Optical Limiting: Characterization & Numerical Modeling. In: Kajzar, F., Agranovich, M.V. (eds) Multiphoton and Light Driven Multielectron Processes in Organics: New Phenomena, Materials and Applications. NATO Science Series, vol 79. Springer, Dordrecht. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-94-011-4056-0_4
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-94-011-4056-0_4
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