A theoretical and experimental study of non-linear absorption properties of substituted 2,5-di-(phenylethynyl)thiophenes and structurally related compounds.

Per Lind (1) , Marcus Carlsson (2) , Bertil Eliasson (2) , Eirik Glimsdal (3) , Mikael Lindgren (3) , Cesar Lopes (4) , Linus Boman (5) , Patrick Boman (5)

1 NBC Defence, FOI
2 Department of Chemistry
3 Physics NTNU - Department of Physics [Trondheim]
4 Division of Sensor Technology
5 Department of Physics, Chemistry and Biology

Photo-physical properties relevant for optical power limiting in the near-visible and visible regions of the spectrum are reported for a series of substituted diarylalkynyl chalcogenophenes (furans, thiophenes, selenophenes, and tellurophenes). The linear ground and excited state absorption as well as the nonlinear two-photon absorption were determined at the time-dependent density functional theory level with use of the hybrid exchange-correlation functionals B3LYP and CAM-B3LYP. A selected number of the theoretically studied molecules were synthesized and characterized experimentally with the use of absorption and luminescence spectroscopy. The photo-physical data are compared to the results from optical power limiting measurements performed in THF solution at a wavelength of 532 nm, with a laser pulse length of 5 ns and pulse energies up to 150 μJ. The best compounds in the present investigation display an energy damping of approximately a factor of 10 at a concentration of 0.010 M.

Mots clés: Physical Sciences

Per Lind, Marcus Carlsson, Bertil Eliasson, Eirik Glimsdal, Mikael Lindgren, et al.. A theoretical and experimental study of non-linear absorption properties of substituted 2,5-di-(phenylethynyl)thiophenes and structurally related compounds.. Molecular Physics, 2009, 107 (07), pp.629-641. ⟨10.1080/00268970902845289⟩. ⟨hal-00513267⟩