Optical limiting in pulsed laser deposited VO2 nanostructures

Being a Mott type oxide, at a temperature of similar to 68 degrees C and ambient pressure, stoichiometric VO2 undergoes a first order metal-insulator transition, which is accompanied by a reversible abrupt change in the band gap opening. From an optical point of view, this metal-insulator transition manifests itself by a significant and reversible variation of the refractive index under either a thermal stimuli or by photo-induction. This contribution reports on the ultrafast optical limiting in the IR regime of pulse laser deposited VO2 nanostructures. (C) 2011 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.