Nonlinear Optical Monitoring of Polyurethane via Cordierite Glass Ceramic doping by Z-Scan Technique

Polyurethane (PU) –cordierite glass ceramic (2MgO.2Al2O3.5SiO2) nanocomposite samples were developed by in situ polymerization technique. Amorphic cordierite nanocrystallites synthesis was done by Pechini method. By SEM imaging the sizes of the produced grains were gained in the range of 30-100 nm. The third-order optical nonlinearities of PU-2MgO.2Al2O3.5SiO2 nanocomposites, dissolved in DMF are characterized by Z-scan technique. The nonlinear refractive (NLR) indices and nonlinear absorption (NLA) coefficients of the synthesized samples are obtained in the order of 10-8 (cm2/W) with negative sign and 10-5 (cm/W), respectively. The origin of optical nonlinearity in this case may be attributed due to the presence of strong saturable absorption (SA) effect. Furthermore, the results show that PU-2MgO.2Al2O3.5SiO2 may be hopeful candidate for the application to optical limiting in the visible region.