Experimental Investigation of the Optical Nonlinearity of Laser-Ablated Titanium Dioxide Nanoparticles Using Femtosecond Laser Light Pulses

Abstract

In this report, the nonlinear optical (NLO) properties of titanium dioxide nanoparticles (TiO₂ NPs) have been explored experimentally using femtosecond laser light along with the Z-scan approach. The synthesis of TiO₂ NPs was carried out in distilled water through nanosecond second harmonic Nd:YAG laser ablation. Characterization of the TiO₂ NPs colloids was conducted using UV-visible absorption spectroscopy, transmission electron microscopy (TEM), inductively coupled plasma (ICP), and energy-dispersive X-ray spectroscopy (EDX). The TEM analysis indicated that the size distribution and average particle size of the TiO₂ NPs varied from 8.3 nm to 19.1 nm, depending on the laser ablation duration. The third-order NLO properties of the synthesized TiO₂ NPs were examined at different excitation laser wavelengths and incident powers through both open- and closed-aperture Z-scan techniques, utilizing a laser pulse duration of 100 fs and a high repetition rate of 80 MHz. The nonlinear absorption (NLA) coefficient and nonlinear refractive (NLR) index of the TiO₂ NPs colloidal solutions were found to be influenced by the incident power, excitation wavelength, average size, and concentration of TiO₂ NPs. Maximum values of 4.93 × 10⁻⁹ cm/W for the NLA coefficient and 15.39 × 10⁻¹⁵ cm²/W for the NLR index were observed at an excitation wavelength of 800 nm, an incident power of 0.6 W, and an ablation time of 15 min. The optical limiting (OL) effects of the TiO₂ NPs solution at different ablation times were investigated and revealed to be concentration and average size dependent. An increase in concentration results in a more limiting effect.