Laser-Induced Diffraction Rings from an Absorbing Solution

Abstract

We observed multiple diffraction rings of a cw Ar+ laser beam from a nitrobenzene solution of saturable absorber BDN (bis-(4-dimethylaminodithiobenzil)-nickel) caused by the spatial self-phase modulation at low incident optical intensities. We obtained 37 rings for a 200-μm thick sample at an optical intensity of 38 W/mm2. The refractive-index change Δ;n and effective nonlinear refractive index n2 were determined from the number of observed rings and by the z-scan technique. We obtained large values of Δ;n∼0.1 and n2 = -2.9×;10-5 cm2/W. This large nonlinearity is attributed to a thermal effect resulting from linear absorption.