Abstract
Nonlinear refraction in various polymethyl methacrylate (PMMA) solid hosts when doped with fluorescent organic dyes, commonly used as a laser active medium, has been studied. The observed thermal lensing effect arising from optical nonlinearity, results from non-radiative energy transfer from the dye molecules to the solid matrix and is, therefore, strongly dependent on the thermal properties and material parameters of the polymeric host. The non-linear index of refraction, n2, for each sample of dye doped polymeric host, has been measured employing the standard Z-scan technique. These measured values of n2, have been used to determine the extent of variation in the index of refraction with varying temperature, dn/dT, for the various host materials. Estimation of dn/dT is critical in determining the extent of thermal lensing in the dye doped solid-state medium, that in turn determines the spatial quality and divergence of the generated laser beam delivered by a dye doped solid-state laser system.
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42.55.Mv; 42.65.Jx; 42.70.Jk
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Sinha, S., Sasikumar, S., Ray, A. et al. Z-scan measurement of optical nonlinearity in solid-state dye doped media. Appl. Phys. B 87, 145–149 (2007). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00340-006-2530-5
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s00340-006-2530-5