Spectral and nonlinear optical characterization of blue light emitting gahnite nanorods synthesized through radiation assisted sol gel method

Abstract

Here, we report the spectral, linear and nonlinear optical studies of gahnite (zinc aluminate) nanorods synthesized by a simple microwave assisted wet chemical route. Structural and linear optical studies were carried out by X-ray diffraction, Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy, transmission electron microscopy, diffuse reflectance and photoluminescence measurements. The XRD pattern revealed that the sample is a single phase cubic material with spinel structure and crystallite size 15 nm. Strong blue emission was observed on exciting the sample at 300 nm. The optical nonlinearity and optical limiting behavior of the zinc aluminate nanorods were investigated by open aperture z-scan technique by using Nd:YAG laser at 532 nm. The nonlinear absorption coefficient was evaluated and the nonlinear transmission of the sample was studied as a function of the input fluence. The investigated material exhibits reverse saturable absorption (RSA) property which makes it to be a potential candidate as optical limiter.