Optical properties of metallophthalocyanines in solution and in sol-gel matrix

The sol-gel method is convenient for preparing amorphous transparent oxides with a wide range of optical properties including laser action, optical gain, phosphorescence, SHG and other non-linear effects. The sol-gel method was used to produce sol-gel samples using metallophthalocyanines. From metallophthalocyanines we used Cu (II) phthalocyanine beta-form, Ni (II) phthalocyaninetetrasulfonic acid, tetrasodium salt, Cu (II) 3,10,17,24-tetra-tert-butyl-1,8,15,22-tetrakis (dimethylamino)29H,31H-phthalocyanine, Zn 1,4,8,11,15,18,22,25-octabutoxy-29H,31H-phthalocyanine Ni (II) 5,9,14,18,23,27,32,36octabutoxy-2,3-naphthalocyanine and Cu (II) 5,9,14,18,23,27,32,36-octabutoxy-2,3-naphthalocyanine. In our paper we report and discuss the results obtained from the measurements of the index of refraction using the prism coupling technique, absorption spectra and non-linear transmission measurements using picosecond laser pulses. The absorption spectras of Cu, Zn and Ni phthalocyanines in solution and sol-gel matrix showed decomposition. We found optical limiting after 0.2 J/cm(2) in Ni (II) phthalocyaninetetrasulfonic acid, tetrasodium salt solution; glass samples showed no optical limiting. The mean of the index of refraction measured for all the beta-Cu phthalocyanine samples was 1.42. No birefringency was found.