Optical linearity and nonlinearity, structural morphology of TiO2-doped PMMA/FTO polymeric nanocomposite films: Laser power attenuation

Abstract

This current study suggests a novel optical nanocomposite polymethyl methacrylate (PMMA) with titanium oxide (TiO2) nanoparticles at different concentrations, synthesizing an effective, unexpansive spin coating technique. Adding to that, using both the X-ray diffraction (XRD) method and Fourier transform infrared (FTIR) spectroscopy were very beneficial to study the consistent changes of grain size and strain in nanoscale for the combination of TiO2 nanoparticles in the host PMMA matrix. The topological structure images were observed by atomic force microscopy (AFM), and it was in good agreement with XRD analysis. Both linear and nonlinear optical parameters of the prepared TiO2/PMMA/FTO films were carried out using a VU-Vis-NIR spectrophotometer. Optimized reduction of the optical direct energy bandgap to around ∼ 3.35 eV and indirect bandgap to about 2.37 eV was determined. The obtained results illustrated under study, leading to promising technological applications. Such high structure stability, large dielectric constant, reduced optical bandgap, as well as higher nonlinear optical properties, concluded that the nano-TiO2 powder mix with PMMA can enhance the morphology and optical properties of the host PMMA polymer and that the uniform prepared TiO2 /PMMA nanocomposites are excellent candidates to be used in different applied optoelectronic devices.