Size effect on the optical limiting in suspensions of detonation nanodiamond clusters

We report on the optical limiting (OL) in stable aqueous suspensions of detonation nanodiamond (ND) clusters with average size of 50, 110, and 320 nm. The nanosecond Z-scan measurements at wavelength of 532 nm revealed that the larger the cluster size, the better the OL performance and the higher the ray stability of the ND suspension. Our analysis showed that the nonlinear scattering and the nonlinear absorption are the dominant mechanisms of OL in aqueous ND suspensions. (C) 2013 Optical Society of America