Type of Document Dissertation Author Marciu, Daniela Author's Email Address email@example.com URN etd-022299-083514 Title Optical Limiting and Degenerate Four-Wave Mixing in Novel Fullerenes Degree PhD Department Physics Advisory Committee
Advisor Name Title Heflin, James R. Committee Chair Dorn, Harry C. Committee Member Indebetouw, Guy J. Committee Member Ritter, Alfred L. Committee Member Zallen, Richard H. Committee Member Keywords
- optical limiting
- degenerate four-wave mixing
- nonlinear optics
Date of Defense 1999-02-09 Availability unrestricted Abstract
Two experimental methods, optical limiting and degenerate four-wave mixing, are employed to study the nonlinear optical properties of various novel fullerenes structures. Optical limiting refers to decreased transmittance of a material with increased incident light intensity. Detailed measurements of the wavelength-dependence of fullerene optical limiters have illustrated several key features of reverse saturable absorption. Most important among these is the requirement of weak but non-negligible ground state absorption. We have shown that the optical limiting performance of C60 can be extended into the near infrared range by appropriate modifications of the structure such as higher cage fullerenes or derivatization of the basic C60 molecule. The higher cage fullerene C76 shows improved optical limiting behavior compared to C60, for wavelengths higher than 650 nm, but becomes a weak limiter in the 800 nm range. C84, even at high concentrations in [alpha]-chloronaphthalene, does not reach the good performance of C60, but instead shows weak optical limiting in the 800 nm range.
We also demonstrate that by attaching various groups to the C60 molecule, we can extend the optical limiting performance in the near infrared regime. The C60 derivatives studied, (C60 cyclic ketone, C60 secondary amine, C60CHC6H4CO2H, and C60C4H4(CH3)CH2O2C(CH2)CO2H), have a similar characteristic: the attached groups cause a symmetry-breaking of the C60 sphere and, therefore, there are new allowed transitions that appear as absorption features up to 750 nm. The optical limiting measurements show that these materials, even for low input energies, have an exceptionally strong optical limiting response in the 640 to 750 nm spectral region. For wavelengths higher than 800 nm, however, they become transparent and no optical limiting is observed. Excited state absorption cross-sections obtained from analysis of the optical limiting data reveal that the C60 derivatives have a maximum triplet-triplet absorption cross-section at 700 nm, which is shifted from the 750 nm value for the C60 molecule. For the first time, optical limiting measurements are performed on five separate C84 isomers. These intriguing results show that the optical limiting behavior is strongly dependent on the cage symmetry. It is also found that the most abundant isomer does not have the strongest optical limiting performance, but is in fact one of the weaker optical limiters of the isomers isolated so far.
The endohedral metallofullerenes are a unique class of fullerene materials and consist of one or more metal atoms encapsulated inside the buckyball cage. An important characteristic of these materials is the charge-transfer from the dopant atoms to the fullerene cage, which has a high electron affinity. The charge-transfer is similar to the optical excitation in a material, but although the electrons are placed in the lowest unoccupied molecular orbital (LUMO), there are no holes produced in the highest occupied molecular orbital (HOMO). This is an important analogy, since it has been previously shown that optical excitation enhances the nonlinear optical properties of a material. The nonresonant degenerate four-wave mixing experiments performed on the endohedral metallofullerene Er2@C82, at 1064 nm, show that the third order nonlinear susceptibility value is increased by orders of magnitude relative to the empty cage fullerenes, thus, confirming the charg e-transfer process from the encapsulated atoms to the fullerene cage. We obtain a value [gamma]xyyx(3)( [omega]; [omega], [omega], [omega])= 8.65 × 10-32 esu for the molecular second order hyperpolarizability, which is almost three orders of magnitude larger than the values reported in literature for an empty cage fullerene.
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