Optical limiting behaviour of suspensions of single-walled carbon nanotubes
in water, ethanol and ethylene glycol is reported. Experiments with 532 nm, 15
nsec duration laser pulses show that optical limiting occurs mainly due to
nonlinear scattering. The observed host liquid dependence of optical limiting
in different suspensions suggests that the scattering originates from
microbubbles formed due to absorption-induced heating.Comment: 10 pages, 5 eps figures, to appear in Chem. Phys. Let

A. Govindaraj

A.K. Sood

Bogges

Broersma

C.N.R. Rao

Chen

Durand

H.S. Rawat

Ijima

Journet

K.C. Rustagi

Mansour

Mishra

Ranjini Bandyopadhyay

S.C. Mehendale

S.R. Mishra

Sheik-Bahae

Vivien

English

arXiv

Optical limiting behaviour of suspensions of single-walled carbon nanotubes in water, ethanol and ethylene glycol is reported. Experiments with 532 nm, 15 ns duration laser pulses show that optical limiting occurs mainly due to nonlinear scattering. The observed host liquid dependence of the optical limiting effect in different suspensions suggests that the scattering originates from microbubbles formed due to absorption-induced heating

Mishra, SR

Rawat, HS

Mehendale, SC

Rustagi, KC

Sood, AK

Bandyopadhyay, Ranjini

Govindaraj, A

Rao, CNR

Open Access Repository of IISc Research Publications

Optical limiting in single-walled carbon nanotube suspensions

Mishra, S. R.

Rawat, H. S.

Mehendale, S. C.

Rustagi, K. C.

Sood, A. K.

Govindaraj, A.

Rao, C. N. R.

Indian Academy of Sciences

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Optical Limiting in Single-walled Carbon Nanotube Suspensions
S. R. Mishra, H. S. Rawat, S. C. Mehendale, K. C. Rustagi, A. K. Sood⋆,
Ranjini Bandyopadhyay⋆, A. Govindaraj † and C. N. R. Rao†
Laser Programme, Centre for Advanced Technology, Rajendra Nagar, Indore 452 013, India.
⋆ Department of Physics, Indian Institute of Science, Bangalore 560 012, India.
† Jawaharlal Nehru Centre for Advanced Scientific Research, Jakkur P. O., Bangalore 560 064,
India.
Abstract
Optical limiting behaviour of suspensions of single-walled carbon nanotubes in water,
ethanol and ethylene glycol is reported. Experiments with 532 nm, 15 nsec duration laser
pulses show that optical limiting occurs mainly due to nonlinear scattering. The observed
host liquid dependence of optical limiting in different suspensions suggests that the scattering
originates from microbubbles formed due to absorption-induced heating.
I. INTRODUCTION
Carbon nanotubes provide a unique class of nanostructured materials. Improved methods
of synthesis, purification and functionalization have triggered many experiments exploring
basic physics of mesoscopic objects as well as various possible applications [1-4]. Like in C60
and other fullerene derivatives, optical limiting is an important application of nanotubes.
Optical limiting in liquid suspensions of multi-walled carbon nanotubes ( MWNTs ) has
been reported recently [5,6]. The observed limiting has been compared with that of its
well-studied cousin C60 fullerene. Whereas optical limiting in C60 solution occurs due to the
reverse saturable absorption and subsequent nonlinear refraction and scattering [7], optical
limiting in MWNT suspension is attributed to the nonlinear scattering arising from expand-
ing microplasmas as in carbon black suspension (CBS) [6]. Optical limiting investigations of
carbon nanotubes become even more important since they combine the relative advantages
of both CBS and fullerene solutions. As for CBS, the nanotube suspensions consist of rela-
tively large size (length > 100 nm ) constituents. However, unlike CBS but like fullerenes,
their structure and electronic properties are well characterized and their optical response is
susceptible to further improvements by molecular engineering. We have carried out a de-
tailed investigation of the optical limiting of suspensions of well-characterised single-walled
carbon nanotubes ( SWNTs ) in ethanol, water and ethylene glycol by carrying out optical
limiting, z-scan and scattering measurements. The results demonstrate that optical limiting
in SWNT suspensions occurs mainly due to absorption-induced scattering in the suspension.
Furthermore, the limiting strongly depends on the host liquid. While this manuscript was in
preparation, optical limiting in a water suspension of SWNTs has been reported by Vivien
et al [8]. However, the present report includes studies of three host liquids, an aspect rele-
vant to optical limiting, and the results suggest that the optical limiting is due to nonlinear
scattering from absorption-induced microbubbles.
1
II. EXPERIMENTAL
SWNTs were produced by the dc arc discharge method using a composite graphite rod
containing Y2O3 (1 at.%) and Ni (4.2 at.%) as anode and a graphite rod as cathode under
a helium pressure of 660 torr with a current of 100 A and 30 V [9]. The web produced from
the arc-discharge contained SWNT bundles, amorphous carbon along with metal encapsu-
lated carbon particles as seen from the high resolution electron microscope (HREM) image.
It was heated in air at 300◦C for about 24 hours to remove the amorphous carbonaceous
materials. The heat-treated material was stirred with concentrated nitric acid at 50◦C for
about 12 h and washed with distilled water to remove the dissolved metal particles. The
SWNT material so obtained was suspended in ethanol by using an ultrasonicator and fil-
tered through a micropore filter paper (0.3 µm) from Millipore to remove polyhedral carbon
nanoparticles present. The product was then dried at 50◦C for about 12 h. The SWNT
content of the product was found to be 80% by thermogravimetric analysis. High-resolution
electron microscopic examination (HREM) showed that the SWNTs with an average diam-
eter of 1.4 nm were present as bundles of 10-50 nanotubes. About 5-10 mg of the purified
SWNT was dispersed in 15 ml of water/ethanol by ultrasound sonication for 30 minutes.
This dispersion was used for our study. All suspensions were stable for several hours after
ultrasonication. Optical transmission spectra were found to remain unchanged during the
experiment. Dynamic light scattering measurements were performed on the suspensions to
characterise the average size of the scatterers. The light scattering experiments were done
using λ = 647.1nm radiation from a Kr+ ion laser, a home-made spectrometer and a corre-
lator (Malvern 7132CE 64 channel model). Fig. 1 shows the plot of the normalised intensity
autocorrelation function g2(t) - 1= <I(0) I(t)>/<I(0)>
2 - 1 versus time for different scat-
tering angles θ, which have been fitted to g2(t) - 1 = A exp (-Γ t ), where Γ = 2Dq
2, q
=4πn
λ
sinθ
2
is the wavevector transfer, n = 1.33 is the refractive index of the solvent and
D is the diffusion coefficient of the scatterer (nanotube). The inset of Fig. 1 shows a plot
of Γ versus q2, and a linear fit gives D = 1.49*10−8 cm2s−1. Taking the average diameter
of the nanotube bundles to be 40nm as suggested by electron microscopy and using the
equations D = kBT [6 - 0.5(γ‖+ γ⊥)]/3πη◦L, γ‖ = 1.27 - 7.4(
1
δ
- 0.34)2, γ⊥ = 0.19 - 4.2(
1
δ
- 0.39)2 and δ = ln 2L
d
[10], where L and d are the length and diameter of the cylindrical
rods and η◦ is the solvent viscosity, we obtain an average value for L ∼ 25µm. Experiments
were performed using a frequency doubled Nd:YAG laser giving 532 nm, 15 ns laser pulses
with pulse repetition every ∼3 seconds. The laser emission was focussed using a 50 cm lens
such that 1/e2 radius of the focussed beam was ∼ 50 µm at the focus. For optical limiting
measurements the nanotubes sample was kept at the focus and the transmitted emission
was passed through an aperture with ∼ 95% transmission at low fluences. Thus the aper-
ture would block off-axis scattered emission, if any, from the sample at high fluences. The
input energy was measured by taking a fraction of the input beam on a calibrated biplanar
photodiode and output energy was measured by a calibrated PIN-photodiode kept after the
aperture. The input and output fluences were estimated by measuring input and output
energy and beam size at the sample position.
2
III. RESULTS AND DISCUSSION
Fig. 2 shows the observed variation of output fluence with input fluence for a SWNTs
suspension in water and a C60 -toluene solution . The transmission spectrum of SWNT
sample is shown in the inset. Both absorption and scattering may contribute to the loss
in transmitted intensity. The SWNTs and C60 samples were kept in two identical cuvettes
and concentrations were adjusted so that the low fluence transmission through the cuvette
was the same ( ∼ 55 % ) for both the samples. It is evident from the figure that optical
limiting in C60 solution is stronger than that in SWNTs suspension in water. On the
other hand, stronger limiting in MWNTs suspension in ethanol than that in C60 solution in
toluene has been earlier reported by Chen et al [6]. To know the contribution of nonlinear
refraction to the observed optical limiting in nanotubes suspension, we performed z-scan
measurements [11]. In these measurements the aperture used in the limiting geometry was
moved to the far-field region with ∼ 16% transmission without the nanotubes sample in
the beam path. Fig. 3 shows the z-scan results. The transmission shown in this figure is
the ratio of the aperture transmission measured with the sample in the beam path to that
measured without the sample. Thus at large z values the transmission corresponds to the
low intensity transmission through the sample. At smaller z values ( i.e higher fluences )
transmission reduces and reaches its minimum near z=0 . The absence of any peak in the
z-scan data in Fig. 3 indicates that nonlinear scattering is much stronger than nonlinear
refraction. The observed pronounced valley shown in this figure can occur due to nonlinear
scattering as well as nonlinear absorption. We believe that the dominant contribution to
the observed transmission valley in Fig. 3 is from nonlinear scattering because the optical
limiting was found to be very sensitive to the size of the aperture. We note that optical
limiting in multi-walled carbon nanotubes suspensions has also been attributed to absorption
induced scattering in the suspensions [6]. Z-scan measurement of SWNT suspension in water
by Vivien et al [8] showed negative lensing corresponding to thermally induced nonlinear
refraction, in apparent variance with our observations. The difference could be due to much
higher intensities and much smaller aperture transmission used by them. On the other hand,
Chen et al [6] found stronger optical limiting in MWNT suspension in ethanol compared
to C60 solution in toluene. Similarly, Vivien et al [8] also reported stronger optical limiting
in SWNT suspension in water compared to C60 solution in toluene. We note that optical
limiting due to nonlinear refraction of thermal origin would be stronger for longer pulses used
in our experiments. This mechanism is expected to be more important in C60 solution than in
SWNT suspensions. To understand the nature of scattering, we measured the scattered light
at different angles from the sample cell. Fig. 4 shows the results for an angle ∼ 0.8◦ from the
beam axis. For these measurements, the energy of scattered light passing through a suitably
positioned 3 mm diameter aperture was measured using a PIN photodiode in integrating
mode. The y-axis in Fig. 4 shows the ratio of the signal from this PIN photodiode to the
signal from another photodiode monitoring the input pulse energy. For linear scattering
this ratio is expected to be constant for all values of the input fluence. The data in Fig. 4
clearly shows evidence of nonlinear scattering. The ratio initially rises and then falls as input
fluence is increased which appears to be due to a change in angular distribution of scattered
light. We have also measured optical limiting in nanotubes suspended in different liquids viz.
ethylene glycol, water and ethanol. For this purpose, identical 10 mm path length cuvettes
3
were used and low fluence transmission was kept at ∼ 42%. During measurements with the
three samples, all the cells containing SWNTs suspension were accurately positioned at the
same place and other experimental set-up was unaltered. Fig. 5 shows the observed limiting
data for different suspensions. It is evident that optical limiting in ethanol suspension was
strongest among the three suspensions. The threshold fluence (defined as the fluence at
which the transmission reduces to half of its low fluence value ) in different liquids was
also different. As estimated from Fig. 5, the lowest value was ∼ 1.0 J/cm2 for ethanol
suspension. These observations suggest that the extent of nonlinear scattering depends on
the liquid host. The nonlinear scattering from suspensions of absorbing particles in liquids
can result from several mechanisms . The scattering centres can be expanding microplasmas
generated by vaporization of the particles [12], bubbles formed by vaporization of the liquid
[13] or transient refractive index inhomogeneities resulting from localised heating around
absorbing particles [7]. Our observation of strong solvent dependence of optical limiting
rules out plasma formation as being an important mechanism. The change in refractive
index of a liquid depends on its thermal figure of merit F = 1
cρ
dn
dT
(where c is the specific
heat, ρ is the density and dn
dT
is the thermo-optic coefficient). The values of F are 7.5,
8.0 and 1.0 10−4cm3calK−1 for ethylene glycol, ethanol and water , respectively. We note
that although ethylene glycol has much larger F, optical limiting in glycol suspension was
much weaker than that in water suspension. This implies that absorption induced refractive
index inhomogeneities did not make significant contribution to the nonlinear scattering.
We thus believe that the observed nonlinear scattering in our experiments is mainly from
microbubbles formed in the suspension. The strongest optical limiting in ethanol suspension
is qualitatively consistent with its lowest boiling point of ∼ 78 ◦C among the three liquids.
This conclusion also agrees with the recent pump-probe investigation of CBS by Durand et
al [14] using 30 ps laser pulses. These authors found that while for the first few nanosecond
after the pump pulse, probe attenuation was solvent independent suggesting scattering from
microplasma, for larger delays the probe transmission showed strong solvent dependence
implying scattering from bubbles or thermo-optic effects. In conclusion, we report optical
limiting of visible ns laser pulses in suspensions of single-walled carbon nanotubes. The
dominant mechanism for the observed limiting has been found to be absorption induced
nonlinear scattering. Optical limiting has been found to be significantly different for different
liquids indicating that scattering is probably due to bubble formation in the suspension,
although other causes like sublimation of particles cannot be ruled out at present.
IV. ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS
AKS thanks Department of Science and Technology, New Delhi for financial assistance.
Technical help of S. K. Tiwari and M. Laghate during experiments on optical limiting is
gratefully acknowledged.
V. REFERENCES
[1] S. Ijima, Nature 354, 56 (1991).
4
[2] T. W. Ebbesen, ”Synthesis and Characterization of Carbon Nanotubes” in Physics and
Chemistry of Fullerenes, Ed., K. Prassides ( Kluwer Academic Publishers, Netherlands,
1994), T. W. Ebbesen, ”Carbon Nanotubes”, Physics Today ( June 1996, p-26 ).
[3] C.N.R.Rao, A. Govindaraj, R.Sen and B. Satishkumar, Mater. Res. Innovat 2, 128
(1998) and references therein.
[4] R. Saito, G. Dresselhaus and M. S. Dresselhaus, ”Physical Properties of Carbon Nan-
otubes” ( Imperial College Press, London, 1998 )
[5] X. Sun, R. Q. Yu, G. Q. Xu, T. S. A. Hor and W.Ji , Appl. Phys. Lett. 73, 3632 (1998).
[6] P. Chen, X. Wu, X. Sun, J. Lin, W. Ji and K. L. Tan, Phys. Rev. Lett. 82, 2548 (1999).
[7] S. R. Mishra, H. S. Rawat, M.P. Joshi and S. C. Mehendale, J. Phys. B 27, L157 (1994).
[8] L. Vivien, E. Anglaret, D. Riehl, F. Bacou, C. Journet, C. Goze, M. Andrieux, M. Brunet,
F. Lafonta, P. Bernier, F. Hache, Chem. Phys. Lett. 307, 317 (1999).
[9] Journet, C., Maser, W. K., Bernier, P., Loiseau, A., Lamy de la Chapelle, M., Lefrant,
S., Denierd, P., Lee, R. and Fischer, J. E., Nature, 1997, 388, 756.
[10] S. Broersma, J. Chem. Phys. 32, 1626 (1960).
[11] M. Sheik-Bahae, A. A. Said, T. H. Wei, D. J. Hagen and E. W. Van Stryland, IEEE
J.Quant. Electr. 26, 760 (1990).
[12] K. Mansour, M. J. Soilcau and E. W. Van Stryland, J.Opt. Soc. Am. B 9, 1100 (1992).
[13] T. F. Bogges, G. R. Allan, D. R. Labergerie, C. H. Venzke, A. L Smirl, L. W. Tutt, A.
R. Kost, S. W. McCahahon, M. B. Klein, Opt. Engg. 32(5), 1063 (1993)
[14] O. Durand, V. Grolier-Mazza and R. Frey, Opt. Lett. 23, 1471 (1998).
VI. FIGURE CAPTIONS
Fig. 1. Intensity autocorrelation functions measured at different scattering angles in
dynamic light scattering experiments with SWNT suspension in water. The inset shows the
linear fit to the plot of Γ versus q2.
Fig. 2. Optical limiting in SWNTs - water suspension and C60-toluene solution. Circles
show output with SWNTs-water suspension and triangles show output with C60 solution.
The inset shows transmission loss spectrum of SWNTs-water suspension.
Fig. 3. Variation of transmission with z in a close-aperture z-scan measurements on
SWNTs-water suspension.
Fig. 4. Measured variation of ratio of the scattered energy to the input fluence with
input fluence at an angle of ∼ 0.8◦ in the forward direction from the beam axis.
Fig. 5. Measured variation of output fluence with input fluence in SWNTs suspensions
in different solvents. Crosses, circles and triangles show output from SWNTs suspension in
ethanol, water and ethylene glycol respectively.
5
FIGURES
Fig. 1
6
Fig. 2
7
Fig. 3
8
Fig. 4
9
Fig. 5
10


Crossref

Chemical Physics Letters

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Publications of the IAS Fellows

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Optical Limiting in Single-walled Carbon Nanotube Suspensions
S. R. Mishra, H. S. Rawat, S. C. Mehendale, K. C. Rustagi, A. K. Sood⋆,
Ranjini Bandyopadhyay⋆, A. Govindaraj † and C. N. R. Rao†
Laser Programme, Centre for Advanced Technology, Rajendra Nagar, Indore 452 013, India.
⋆ Department of Physics, Indian Institute of Science, Bangalore 560 012, India.
† Jawaharlal Nehru Centre for Advanced Scientific Research, Jakkur P. O., Bangalore 560 064,
India.
Abstract
Optical limiting behaviour of suspensions of single-walled carbon nanotubes in water,
ethanol and ethylene glycol is reported. Experiments with 532 nm, 15 nsec duration laser
pulses show that optical limiting occurs mainly due to nonlinear scattering. The observed
host liquid dependence of optical limiting in different suspensions suggests that the scattering
originates from microbubbles formed due to absorption-induced heating.
I. INTRODUCTION
Carbon nanotubes provide a unique class of nanostructured materials. Improved methods
of synthesis, purification and functionalization have triggered many experiments exploring
basic physics of mesoscopic objects as well as various possible applications [1-4]. Like in C60
and other fullerene derivatives, optical limiting is an important application of nanotubes.
Optical limiting in liquid suspensions of multi-walled carbon nanotubes ( MWNTs ) has
been reported recently [5,6]. The observed limiting has been compared with that of its
well-studied cousin C60 fullerene. Whereas optical limiting in C60 solution occurs due to the
reverse saturable absorption and subsequent nonlinear refraction and scattering [7], optical
limiting in MWNT suspension is attributed to the nonlinear scattering arising from expand-
ing microplasmas as in carbon black suspension (CBS) [6]. Optical limiting investigations of
carbon nanotubes become even more important since they combine the relative advantages
of both CBS and fullerene solutions. As for CBS, the nanotube suspensions consist of rela-
tively large size (length > 100 nm ) constituents. However, unlike CBS but like fullerenes,
their structure and electronic properties are well characterized and their optical response is
susceptible to further improvements by molecular engineering. We have carried out a de-
tailed investigation of the optical limiting of suspensions of well-characterised single-walled
carbon nanotubes ( SWNTs ) in ethanol, water and ethylene glycol by carrying out optical
limiting, z-scan and scattering measurements. The results demonstrate that optical limiting
in SWNT suspensions occurs mainly due to absorption-induced scattering in the suspension.
Furthermore, the limiting strongly depends on the host liquid. While this manuscript was in
preparation, optical limiting in a water suspension of SWNTs has been reported by Vivien
et al [8]. However, the present report includes studies of three host liquids, an aspect rele-
vant to optical limiting, and the results suggest that the optical limiting is due to nonlinear
scattering from absorption-induced microbubbles.
1
II. EXPERIMENTAL
SWNTs were produced by the dc arc discharge method using a composite graphite rod
containing Y2O3 (1 at.%) and Ni (4.2 at.%) as anode and a graphite rod as cathode under
a helium pressure of 660 torr with a current of 100 A and 30 V [9]. The web produced from
the arc-discharge contained SWNT bundles, amorphous carbon along with metal encapsu-
lated carbon particles as seen from the high resolution electron microscope (HREM) image.
It was heated in air at 300◦C for about 24 hours to remove the amorphous carbonaceous
materials. The heat-treated material was stirred with concentrated nitric acid at 50◦C for
about 12 h and washed with distilled water to remove the dissolved metal particles. The
SWNT material so obtained was suspended in ethanol by using an ultrasonicator and fil-
tered through a micropore filter paper (0.3 µm) from Millipore to remove polyhedral carbon
nanoparticles present. The product was then dried at 50◦C for about 12 h. The SWNT
content of the product was found to be 80% by thermogravimetric analysis. High-resolution
electron microscopic examination (HREM) showed that the SWNTs with an average diam-
eter of 1.4 nm were present as bundles of 10-50 nanotubes. About 5-10 mg of the purified
SWNT was dispersed in 15 ml of water/ethanol by ultrasound sonication for 30 minutes.
This dispersion was used for our study. All suspensions were stable for several hours after
ultrasonication. Optical transmission spectra were found to remain unchanged during the
experiment. Dynamic light scattering measurements were performed on the suspensions to
characterise the average size of the scatterers. The light scattering experiments were done
using λ = 647.1nm radiation from a Kr+ ion laser, a home-made spectrometer and a corre-
lator (Malvern 7132CE 64 channel model). Fig. 1 shows the plot of the normalised intensity
autocorrelation function g2(t) - 1= <I(0) I(t)>/<I(0)>
2 - 1 versus time for different scat-
tering angles θ, which have been fitted to g2(t) - 1 = A exp (-Γ t ), where Γ = 2Dq
2, q
=4πn
λ
sinθ
2
is the wavevector transfer, n = 1.33 is the refractive index of the solvent and
D is the diffusion coefficient of the scatterer (nanotube). The inset of Fig. 1 shows a plot
of Γ versus q2, and a linear fit gives D = 1.49*10−8 cm2s−1. Taking the average diameter
of the nanotube bundles to be 40nm as suggested by electron microscopy and using the
equations D = kBT [6 - 0.5(γ‖+ γ⊥)]/3piη◦L, γ‖ = 1.27 - 7.4(
1
δ
- 0.34)2, γ⊥ = 0.19 - 4.2(
1
δ
- 0.39)2 and δ = ln 2L
d
[10], where L and d are the length and diameter of the cylindrical
rods and η◦ is the solvent viscosity, we obtain an average value for L ∼ 25µm. Experiments
were performed using a frequency doubled Nd:YAG laser giving 532 nm, 15 ns laser pulses
with pulse repetition every ∼3 seconds. The laser emission was focussed using a 50 cm lens
such that 1/e2 radius of the focussed beam was ∼ 50 µm at the focus. For optical limiting
measurements the nanotubes sample was kept at the focus and the transmitted emission
was passed through an aperture with ∼ 95% transmission at low fluences. Thus the aper-
ture would block off-axis scattered emission, if any, from the sample at high fluences. The
input energy was measured by taking a fraction of the input beam on a calibrated biplanar
photodiode and output energy was measured by a calibrated PIN-photodiode kept after the
aperture. The input and output fluences were estimated by measuring input and output
energy and beam size at the sample position.
2
III. RESULTS AND DISCUSSION
Fig. 2 shows the observed variation of output fluence with input fluence for a SWNTs
suspension in water and a C60 -toluene solution . The transmission spectrum of SWNT
sample is shown in the inset. Both absorption and scattering may contribute to the loss
in transmitted intensity. The SWNTs and C60 samples were kept in two identical cuvettes
and concentrations were adjusted so that the low fluence transmission through the cuvette
was the same ( ∼ 55 % ) for both the samples. It is evident from the figure that optical
limiting in C60 solution is stronger than that in SWNTs suspension in water. On the
other hand, stronger limiting in MWNTs suspension in ethanol than that in C60 solution in
toluene has been earlier reported by Chen et al [6]. To know the contribution of nonlinear
refraction to the observed optical limiting in nanotubes suspension, we performed z-scan
measurements [11]. In these measurements the aperture used in the limiting geometry was
moved to the far-field region with ∼ 16% transmission without the nanotubes sample in
the beam path. Fig. 3 shows the z-scan results. The transmission shown in this figure is
the ratio of the aperture transmission measured with the sample in the beam path to that
measured without the sample. Thus at large z values the transmission corresponds to the
low intensity transmission through the sample. At smaller z values ( i.e higher fluences )
transmission reduces and reaches its minimum near z=0 . The absence of any peak in the
z-scan data in Fig. 3 indicates that nonlinear scattering is much stronger than nonlinear
refraction. The observed pronounced valley shown in this figure can occur due to nonlinear
scattering as well as nonlinear absorption. We believe that the dominant contribution to
the observed transmission valley in Fig. 3 is from nonlinear scattering because the optical
limiting was found to be very sensitive to the size of the aperture. We note that optical
limiting in multi-walled carbon nanotubes suspensions has also been attributed to absorption
induced scattering in the suspensions [6]. Z-scan measurement of SWNT suspension in water
by Vivien et al [8] showed negative lensing corresponding to thermally induced nonlinear
refraction, in apparent variance with our observations. The difference could be due to much
higher intensities and much smaller aperture transmission used by them. On the other hand,
Chen et al [6] found stronger optical limiting in MWNT suspension in ethanol compared
to C60 solution in toluene. Similarly, Vivien et al [8] also reported stronger optical limiting
in SWNT suspension in water compared to C60 solution in toluene. We note that optical
limiting due to nonlinear refraction of thermal origin would be stronger for longer pulses used
in our experiments. This mechanism is expected to be more important in C60 solution than in
SWNT suspensions. To understand the nature of scattering, we measured the scattered light
at different angles from the sample cell. Fig. 4 shows the results for an angle ∼ 0.8◦ from the
beam axis. For these measurements, the energy of scattered light passing through a suitably
positioned 3 mm diameter aperture was measured using a PIN photodiode in integrating
mode. The y-axis in Fig. 4 shows the ratio of the signal from this PIN photodiode to the
signal from another photodiode monitoring the input pulse energy. For linear scattering
this ratio is expected to be constant for all values of the input fluence. The data in Fig. 4
clearly shows evidence of nonlinear scattering. The ratio initially rises and then falls as input
fluence is increased which appears to be due to a change in angular distribution of scattered
light. We have also measured optical limiting in nanotubes suspended in different liquids viz.
ethylene glycol, water and ethanol. For this purpose, identical 10 mm path length cuvettes
3
were used and low fluence transmission was kept at ∼ 42%. During measurements with the
three samples, all the cells containing SWNTs suspension were accurately positioned at the
same place and other experimental set-up was unaltered. Fig. 5 shows the observed limiting
data for different suspensions. It is evident that optical limiting in ethanol suspension was
strongest among the three suspensions. The threshold fluence (defined as the fluence at
which the transmission reduces to half of its low fluence value ) in different liquids was
also different. As estimated from Fig. 5, the lowest value was ∼ 1.0 J/cm2 for ethanol
suspension. These observations suggest that the extent of nonlinear scattering depends on
the liquid host. The nonlinear scattering from suspensions of absorbing particles in liquids
can result from several mechanisms . The scattering centres can be expanding microplasmas
generated by vaporization of the particles [12], bubbles formed by vaporization of the liquid
[13] or transient refractive index inhomogeneities resulting from localised heating around
absorbing particles [7]. Our observation of strong solvent dependence of optical limiting
rules out plasma formation as being an important mechanism. The change in refractive
index of a liquid depends on its thermal figure of merit F = 1
cρ
dn
dT
(where c is the specific
heat, ρ is the density and dn
dT
is the thermo-optic coefficient). The values of F are 7.5,
8.0 and 1.0 10−4cm3calK−1 for ethylene glycol, ethanol and water , respectively. We note
that although ethylene glycol has much larger F, optical limiting in glycol suspension was
much weaker than that in water suspension. This implies that absorption induced refractive
index inhomogeneities did not make significant contribution to the nonlinear scattering.
We thus believe that the observed nonlinear scattering in our experiments is mainly from
microbubbles formed in the suspension. The strongest optical limiting in ethanol suspension
is qualitatively consistent with its lowest boiling point of ∼ 78 ◦C among the three liquids.
This conclusion also agrees with the recent pump-probe investigation of CBS by Durand et
al [14] using 30 ps laser pulses. These authors found that while for the first few nanosecond
after the pump pulse, probe attenuation was solvent independent suggesting scattering from
microplasma, for larger delays the probe transmission showed strong solvent dependence
implying scattering from bubbles or thermo-optic effects. In conclusion, we report optical
limiting of visible ns laser pulses in suspensions of single-walled carbon nanotubes. The
dominant mechanism for the observed limiting has been found to be absorption induced
nonlinear scattering. Optical limiting has been found to be significantly different for different
liquids indicating that scattering is probably due to bubble formation in the suspension,
although other causes like sublimation of particles cannot be ruled out at present.
IV. ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS
AKS thanks Department of Science and Technology, New Delhi for financial assistance.
Technical help of S. K. Tiwari and M. Laghate during experiments on optical limiting is
gratefully acknowledged.
V. REFERENCES
[1] S. Ijima, Nature 354, 56 (1991).
4
[2] T. W. Ebbesen, ”Synthesis and Characterization of Carbon Nanotubes” in Physics and
Chemistry of Fullerenes, Ed., K. Prassides ( Kluwer Academic Publishers, Netherlands,
1994), T. W. Ebbesen, ”Carbon Nanotubes”, Physics Today ( June 1996, p-26 ).
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(1998) and references therein.
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VI. FIGURE CAPTIONS
Fig. 1. Intensity autocorrelation functions measured at different scattering angles in
dynamic light scattering experiments with SWNT suspension in water. The inset shows the
linear fit to the plot of Γ versus q2.
Fig. 2. Optical limiting in SWNTs - water suspension and C60-toluene solution. Circles
show output with SWNTs-water suspension and triangles show output with C60 solution.
The inset shows transmission loss spectrum of SWNTs-water suspension.
Fig. 3. Variation of transmission with z in a close-aperture z-scan measurements on
SWNTs-water suspension.
Fig. 4. Measured variation of ratio of the scattered energy to the input fluence with
input fluence at an angle of ∼ 0.8◦ in the forward direction from the beam axis.
Fig. 5. Measured variation of output fluence with input fluence in SWNTs suspensions
in different solvents. Crosses, circles and triangles show output from SWNTs suspension in
ethanol, water and ethylene glycol respectively.
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FIGURES
Fig. 1
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Fig. 2
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Fig. 3
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Fig. 4
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Fig. 5
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Restricted Access.Optical limiting behaviour of suspensions of single-walled carbon nanotubes in water, ethanol and ethylene glycol is reported. Experiments with 532 nm, 15 nsec duration laser pulses show that optical limiting occurs mainly due to nonlinear scattering. The observed host liquid dependence of optical limiting in different suspensions suggests that the scattering originates from microbubbles formed due to absorption-induced heating

Mishra, S.R.

Rawat, H.S.

Mehendale, S.C.

Rustagi, K.C.

Sood, A.K.

Raman Research Institute Digital Repository

http://citeseerx.ist.psu.edu/viewdoc/summary?doi=10.1.1.241.9378

Optical Limiting in Single-walled Carbon Nanotube Suspensions

Optical Limiting in Single-walled Carbon Nanotube Suspensions

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