Study of nonlinear optical absorption properties of V2O5 nanoparticles in the femtosecond excitation regime

• Published in: Applied physics. A, Materials science & processing Materials science & processing, 2016-08, Vol.122 (8), Article 757
• Main Authors: Molli, Muralikrishna, Bhat Kademane, Abhijit, Pradhan, Prabin, Sai Muthukumar, V.
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Subjects: Characterization and Evaluation of Materials; Condensed Matter Physics; Machines; Manufacturing; Nanotechnology; Optical and Electronic Materials; Physics; Physics and Astronomy; Processes; Surfaces and Interfaces; Thin Films
• ISSN: 0947-8396; 1432-0630
• DOI: 10.1007/s00339-016-0290-6

In this work, we report for the first time, the nonlinear optical absorption properties of vanadium pentoxide (V 2 O 5 ) nanoparticles in the femtosecond excitation regime. V 2 O 5 nanoparticles were synthesized through solution combustion technique. The as-synthesized samples were further characterized using XRD, FESEM, EDAX, TEM and UV–visible spectroscopy. X-ray diffraction results revealed the crystalline nature of the nanoparticles. Electron microscopy studies showed the size of the nanoparticles to be ~200 nm. Open-aperture z-scan technique was employed to study the nonlinear optical absorption behavior of the synthesized samples using a 100-fs laser pulses at 800 nm from a regeneratively amplified Ti: sapphire laser. The mechanism of nonlinear absorption was found to be a three-photon absorption process which was explained using the density of states of V 2 O 5 obtained using density functional theory. These nanoparticles exhibit strong intensity-dependent nonlinear optical absorption and hence could be considered for optical-power-limiting applications.