Enhanced optical limiting effects in a double-decker bis(phthalocyaninato) rare earth complex using radially polarized beams

Optical limiting (OL) effects can be enhanced by exploiting various limiting mechanisms and by designing nonlinear optical materials. In this work, we present the large enhancement of OL effects by manipulating the polarization distribution of the light field. Theoretically, we develop the Z-scan and nonlinear transmission theories on a two-photon absorber under the excitation of cylindrical vector beams. It is shown that both the sensitivity of Z-scan technique and the OL effect using radially polarized beams have the large enhancement compared with that using linearly polarized beams (LPBs). Experimentally, we investigate the nonlinear absorption properties of a doubledecker Pr[Pc(OC8H17)(8)](2) rare earth complex by performing Z-scan measurements with femtosecond-pulsed radially polarized beams at 800 nm wavelength. The observed two-photon absorption process, which originates from strong intramolecular pi-pi interaction, is exploited for OL application. The results demonstrate the large enhancement of OL effects using radially polarized beams instead of LPBs. (C) 2014 AIP Publishing LLC.