Search

By the process of etching and polishing, the dislocation-related etch pits were clearly created on the pyramidal faces for as-grown KDP crystals by rapid growth technique. Through a combination of 3D confocal microscope and optical microscope, the direction of dislocation lines were studied in pyramid section, and the corresponding morphologies of etch pits were also observed in detail. The results show that the dislocation lines are mainly located in the {0 1 0} faces, and the dislocation-related etch pits may be caused by screw dislocations. Moreover, the research indicates that the morphologies of dislocation-related etch pits are somewhat related to the direction of dislocation lines. For the inclined sectors of Iʹ and IIʹ on etch pits, the slope ratio of Iʹ/IIʹ decreases with the increases of β as an angle between the direction of dislocation line and the normal of {101} face. Therefore, the information of dislocation in crystal, especially the orientation of dislocation line, can be inferred by the spatial size characteristics of dislocation-related etch pits.

Using the Z-scan method, the nonlinear optical absorption property of carboxyl-functionalized graphene oxide (GO) was researched for the first time. The strong optical limiting (OL) effect was found in carboxyl-GO, which can be attributed to the two-photon absorption (2PA). At 532-nm excitation condition, the threshold of OL behavior is only 8% of that at 1064 nm excitation, and the saturable intensity $I_{s}$ as well as the 2PA coefficient β2 are 1.31 GW/cm2 and 0.17 cm/GW, respectively. It indicates that carboxyl-GO is an excellent nanomaterial for OL application, especially in short wavelength scope.

The nonlinear refractive index n2 is an important parameter for the nonlinear optical properties of a medium. This study primarily targets to measure the third-order nonlinear optical properties of potassium dihydrogen phosphate (KDP) and deuterated potassium dihydrogen phosphate (DKDP) with 70% deuteration content at λ = 532 nm using the Z-scan technique. The relationship between nonlinear refraction and direction has been studied in detail. Nonlinear refractive index n2, γ and third-order nonlinear susceptibilities xk3 (esu) were calculated through normalized transmittance curves and theoretical formulas. The results indicate that the nonlinear refractive indexes of KDP and DKDP are positive and possess obvious self-focusing effects in high-power laser systems.

Black phosphorous (BP), the most thermodynamically stable allotrope of phosphorus, fills up the lacuna left by other two-dimensional materials with a band gap from 0.3 to 2 eV. The narrow direct band gap and the strong light-matter interaction make BP a promising nonlinear optical (NLO) nano-material. In this paper, the NLO properties of multilayer BP nano-sheets were researched by an open aperture z-scan method. Optical limiting (OL) behavior was observed in the BP material. Three different excitation wavelengths (1064, 532 and 355 nm) were used in the experiments, and the long wavelength excitation exhibited superior NLO performance, including OL and saturable absorption (SA). Our results demonstrate that BP is a promising candidate for OL applications.

The band structure of graphene can be adjusted by incorporating other elements or functional groups, correspondingly, the response to an external light field will also be changed. In this study, we investigated the nonlinear optical (NLO) responses of N-doped graphene nanosheets (N-Gns) with an open aperture Z-scan method, under the excitation of picosecond laser pulses. To the best of our knowledge, this is the first time that two-photon absorption (2PA) of N-Gns has been reported. The normalized nonlinear transmission demonstrates that with the increasing excitation energy, the saturable absorption (SA) and the 2PA appear successively. Compared to the 532 nm excitation, the 1064 nm excitation exhibits smaller saturable intensity Is and larger 2PA coefficient β. At the same time, the N-Gns present superior NLO property compared to pure graphene. Consequently, N-Gns will be a promising candidate for SA or optical limiting (OL) applications.

Nonlinear optical absorption of fluorine-functionalized graphene oxide (F-GO) solution was researched by the open-aperture Z-scan method using 1064 and 532 nm lasers as the excitation sources. The F-GO dispersion exhibited strong optical limiting property and the fitted results demonstrated that the optical limiting behavior was the result of a two-photon absorption process. For F-GO nanosheets, the two-photon absorption coefficients at 1064 nm excitation are 20% larger than the values at 532 nm excitation and four times larger than that of pure GO nanosheets. It indicates that the doping of fluorine can effectively improve the nonlinear optical property of GO especially in infrared waveband, and fluorine-functionalized graphene oxide is an excellent nonlinear absorption material in infrared waveband.

Nonlinear optical absorption effect in KDP and 70%-DKDP crystals, which were grown by the conventional temperature cooling method, was systematically studied using picosecond pulse laser excitation. Using open aperture Z-scan measurements, the dependence of nonlinear absorption effect on sample orientations (I, II, and z) as well as laser intensity was systematically measured at λ = 1064 and 532 nm. According to the experimental results, the nonlinear absorption effect at λ = 532 nm was confirmed, while at λ = 1064 nm no nonlinear absorption was observed for KDP and 70%-DKDP crystals. In addition, the optical absorption along I- and II-type affected by laser intensity was larger than that along the z-direction. The important nonlinear absorption coefficients β and χ I ( 3 ) (esu) measured along different orientations were exhibited in detail at wavelengths of 1064 nm and 532 nm. The results indicate that nonlinear absorption coefficients increase first and then decrease with the increment of laser intensity for KDP and 70%-DKDP crystals.

In this work, using large-sized single crystals of high optical quality, the optical properties of Ba2TiSi2O8 were systematically investigated, including transmission spectra, refractive indices and nonlinear absorption properties. The crystal exhibits a high transmittance (>84%) over a wide wavelength range from 340 to 2500 nm. The refractive indices in the range from 0.31256 to 1.01398 μm were measured, and Sellmeier’s equations were fitted by the least squares method. The nonlinear absorption properties were studied by using the open-aperture Z-scan technique, with a nonlinear absorption coefficient measured to be on the order of 0.257 cm/GW at the peak power density of 16.4 GW/cm2. Such high transmittance and wide transparency indicate that optical devices using the Ba2TiSi2O8crystal can be applied over a wide wavelength range. Furthermore, the small nonlinear absorption observed in Ba2TiSi2O8 will effectively increase the optical conversion efficiency, decreasing the generation of laser damage of the optical device.

High-quality KDP and DKDP crystals with 12%, 70% and 80%-deuterium content were grown by the conventional temperature cooling method. The nonlinear optical characteristics of K(DxH1-x)2PO4 crystals, including nonlinear absorption and refraction, were systematically investigated through the Z-scan method at λ = 532 nm. The results demonstrate the existence of nonlinear absorption and refraction, and a nonlinear refractive index with a positive sign indicates the generation of self-focusing effect. Moreover, the results indicate that nonlinear absorption and refraction were associated with crystal direction and structure, especially the distribution of H2PO4 - or D2PO4 - groups. For K(DxH1-x)2PO4 crystals, a similar rule of β was z > I > II, while n2 (or χR(3)) was z > II ≈I. These results will evoke more attention to KDP and DKDP applications, especially frequency conversion and electro-optic switch.

Large Ba2TiSi2O8 crystals were successfully grown by the Czochralski technique. The stimulated Raman scattering properties of the Ba2TiSi2O8 crystals were investigated for the first time, and the first (558 nm) and second (587 nm) Stokes lines were generated in an ultracavity single-pass configuration excited by 532 nm picosecond pulses. The output energy and conversion efficiency of the scattering process as functions of pump energy were studied, and the highest conversion efficiency was found to be 31.8%. The experiments indicate that Ba2TiSi2O8 is a novel active crystal suitable for solid-state Raman laser applications.