Third order optical nonlinearity and optical limiting studies of propane hydrazides

Abstract

Four hydrazones, 2-(4-isobutylphenyl)-N?-[phenylmethylene] propanehydrazide (P<inf>1</inf>), 2-(4-isobutylphenyl)-N?-[(4- tolyl)methylene] propane hydrazide (P<inf>2</inf>), 2-(4-isobutylphenyl)- N?-[1-(4- chlorophenyl)ethylidene] propanehydrazide (P<inf>3</inf>) and 2-(4-isobutylphenyl)-N?-[1-(4-Nitrrophenyl)ethylidene] propane hydrazide (P<inf>4</inf>) were synthesized and their third order nonlinear optical properties have been investigated using a single beam Z-scan technique with nanosecond laser pulses at 532 nm. The measurement on the compound-P<inf>1</inf> is not reported as there is no detectable nonlinear response. Open aperture data of the other three compounds indicate two photon absorption at this wavelength. The nonlinear refractive index n<inf>2</inf>, nonlinear absorption coefficient ?, magnitude of effective third order susceptibility ?(3), the second order hyperpolarizability ?<inf>h</inf> and the coupling factor ? have been estimated. The values obtained are comparable with the values obtained for 4-methoxy chalcone derivatives and dibenzylideneacetone derivatives. The experimentally determined values of ?, n<inf>2</inf>, Re ?(3) and Im ?(3), ?<inf>h</inf> and ? of the compound-P<inf>4</inf> are 1.42 cm/GW, -0.619 × 10-11 esu, -0.663 × 10-13 esu, 0.22 × 10-13 esu, 0.34 × 10-32 esu and 0.33 respectively. Further the compound-P<inf>4</inf> exhibited the best optical power limiting behavior at 532 nm among the compounds studied. Our studies suggest that compounds P<inf>2</inf>, P<inf>3</inf> and P<inf>4</inf> are potential candidates for the optical device applications such as optical limiters and optical switches. © 2012 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.