Optothermal nonlinearity of silica aerogel

Maria Chiara Braidotti, Silvia Gentilini, Adam Fleming, Michiel Christiaan Samuels, Andrea Di Falco, Claudio Conti

Research output: Contribution to journalLetterpeer-review

Abstract

We report on the characterization of silica aerogel thermal optical nonlinearity, obtained by z-scan technique. The results show that typical Silica Aerogels have nonlinear optical coefficient similar to that of glass (≃ 10-12m2/W), with negligible optical nonlinear absorption. The nonlinear coefficient can be increased to values in the range of 10-10m2/W by embedding an absorbing dye in the Aerogel. This value is one order of magnitude higher than that observed in the pure dye and in typical highly nonlinear materials like liquid crystals.
Original languageEnglish
Article number041104
Number of pages5
JournalApplied Physics Letters
Volume109
Issue number4
DOIs
Publication statusPublished - 25 Jul 2016

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