Nonlinear optical studies on 1,3-disubstituent chalcones doped polymer films

We report the measurements of the third-order nonlinear optical properties of recently synthesized and characterized two different 1,3-disubstituent chalcones doped PMMA films, with the prospective of reaching a good compromise between processability and high nonlinear optical properties. The measurements were done using nanosecond Z-scan at 532 nm. The Z-scan spectra reveal a large negative nonlinear refraction coefficient n₂ of the order 10^-11 esu and the molecular two photon absorption cross section is 10^-46 cm⁴ s/photon. The doped films exhibit good optical power limiting property under nanosecond regime and the two photon absorption (TPA) is the dominating process leading to the nonlinear behavior. The improvement in the nonlinear properties has been observed when methylenedioxy group is replaced by dimethoxy group due to increase in conjugation length. The observed nonlinear parameters of chalcone derivatives doped PMMA film is comparable with stilbazolieum derivatives, a well-known class of optical materials for photonics and biophotonics applications, which suggests that, these moieties have potential for the application of all-optical limiting and switching devices.