Quantification of nonlinear absorption in ternary As-Sb-Se chalcogenide glasses

Abstract

In this article, we studied intensity dependent third order nonlinear optical response in ternary As40Sb7Se53 and As40Sb10Se50 chalcogenide glasses by employing the nanosecond Z-scan technique. At low intensities, we observed saturable absorption in As40Sb7Se53 which makes a remarkable transition to reverse saturable absorption at higher intensities. On the other hand, when the Sb concentration increased in As40Sb10Se50, saturable absorption disappears and the sample exhibits only two-photon absorption. Experimental results further indicate that the strong two-photon absorption in our samples can be exploited to fabricate high performance solid state optical limiting devices for the next generation all-optical network.