Nonlinear optical and all-optical switching studies of palladium(II) complex

Abstract

Palladium complex with Schiff-base (PdL) was synthesized and composite films were fabricated on glass substrates by the spin coating technique. Z-scan and degenerate four wave mixing (DFWM) studies on the complex were performed using Q-switched Nd:YAG 7 ns laser pulses at 532 nm to reveal the third-order nonlinear optical (NLO) parameters. The third-order NLO susceptibility (?(3)) and second-order hyperpolarizability (?<inf>h</inf>) in film form are estimated to be of the order of 10-11 and 10 -30 esu respectively. Large nonlinear absorption (NLA) due to reverse-saturable absorption (RSA) in the complex exhibits good optical power limiting (OPL) performance. All-optical switching (AOS) experiments were performed using the pump-probe method. The Z-scan investigations reveal that the switching is caused by excited-state absorption (ESA) of the He-Ne laser. © 2013 Elsevier B.V.