Inorganic and hybrid nanostructures for optical limiting

This paper reviews the recent development of inorganic and hybrid nanomaterials for optical limiting applications. The synthesis, testing method, optical limiting property and mechanism of several representative classes of nanomaterial, including carbon nanotubes, silver and gold nanocomposites, and selected other conducting and semiconducting nanomaterials, are introduced separately. The nonlinear optical mechanisms observed in inorganic nanomaterials, i.e. nonlinear scattering, two-photon absorption, free-carrier absorption, etc, are discussed in conjunction with the influence of the material properties and the laser source on the optical limiting performance.