Porphyrin dye media for optical limiting

Journal article

In this report we study nine structurally similar porphyrins and show how the material parameters that control the optical limiting depend on the molecular structure. Optical limiting measurements at 532 nm on the metal-free, zinc and lead analogues of tetraphenyl porphyrin (TPP), tetra(trimethylsilyethynyl) porphyrin (TTMSAP) and tetra(4-n-butylphenylethynyl) porphyrin (TNBBAP) reveal a strong dependence on the molecular structure. A double pump/cw probe technique is used to measure the material parameters that control the optical limiting and the results give a strong insight into how the molecular structure influences the individual parameters. These measurements revealed that one of the materials TTMSAP(Pb) has a σex/σgr ratio of approximately 45 at 532 nm, which is one of the largest values ever reported. Finally, broadband measurements with a picosecond white-light source show that the excited state absorption profile for the porphyrins examined is much broader than the ground state features and is centred to the long wavelength side of the ground state Soret band.

Authors: McEwan, K; Robertson, J; Anderson, H

• Publisher: Materials Research Society
• Journal: Materials Research Society Symposium - Proceedings
• Volume: 597
• Pages: 395-406
• Publication date: 2000-01-01
• ISSN: 0272-9172
• Language: English