Nanosecond measurements of nonlinear absorption and refraction in solutions of bis-phthalocyanines at 532 nm

The magnitude of the excited-state absorption cross sections of LuPc2, EuPc2 and NdPc2 have been evaluated with 8 ns laser pulses at 532 nm. The numerical calculation follows a rate equations model. Several metallophthalocyanines have also been studied with the same model for comparison. The excited-state-induced refractive-index cross sections, and the effective nonlinear refractive indices have been determined with the z-scan technique. Our results also displayed that the excited-state populations on the t1 state were enhanced by the metal atoms, and all the metal-substituted monomers and dimers studied here have similar population rates on their t1 states.