ENHANCED REVERSE SATURABLE ABSORPTION AND OPTICAL LIMITING IN HEAVY-ATOM-SUBSTITUTED PHTHALOCYANINES

The reverse saturable absorption and the optical-limiting response of metal phthalocyanines can be enhanced by use of the heavy-atom effect. Phthalocyanines containing heavy-metal atoms, such as In, Sn, and Pb, show a nearly factor-of-2 enhancement in the ratio of effective excited-state to ground-state absorption cross sections compared with those containing lighter atoms, such as Al and Si. In an f/8 optical geometry, homogeneous solutions of heavy-metal phthalocyanines, at 30% linear transmission, limit 8-ns 532-nm laser pulses to less-than-or-equal-to 3 muJ (the energy for 50% probability of eye damage) for incident energies as high as 800 muJ.