Optical limiting studies in photorefractive pure and iron-doped Bi12SiO20 crystals

Optical limiting characteristics of pure and 150 ppm Fe-doped Bi12SiO20 (BSO:Fe) crystals are studied at high intensity nanosecond pulse regime. When the input light is at 532 nm and at 595 nm with 6 ns pulse duration, a good optical limiting behavior is observed due to simultaneous effect of trap assisted excited state absorption and two photon absorption. The precise role of the internal defects due to impurity centers present in the crystal lattice is explained on the basis of a four level model. This study reveal that the increased nonlinear absorption due to iron incorporation in BSO makes it an excellent passive optical limiter.