Strong nonlinear optical limiting of resin composed by carbon nanotubes

Abstract

The development of solid-state nonlinear optical limiting (NOL) materials is crucial for advancing the practicality in the field of optical limiting. In this paper, we innovatively prepare a new solid NOL material which is spiral carbon nanotubes doped epoxy resin (SCNTs-doped ER, SER) with a simple physical mixing method, and achieve an excellent nonlinear optical limiting performance. We experimentally measured optical limiting of SER with different SCNTs concentrations (0.14, 0.28, and 0.43 mg/mL) and obtained the nonlinear absorption coefficient, nonlinear refractive index, and third-order nonlinear susceptibility at the wavelength 1064 nm. Z-scan experiment results show that the SER exhibits a large nonlinear absorption coefficient (5.07 ± 0.38) × 10−9 m/W. We also measure the transmittance of the SER to evaluate its nonlinear optical limiting performance. For the SER with 0.43 mg/mL concentration, the linear transmittance and minimum transmittance with NOL effects at 1064 nm are 54.8% and 26.2%, respectively. In addition, the SER also has prominent features such as a high damage threshold and easy fabrication, indicating that the SER is a promising solid material for nonlinear optical limiting.