Spectral and nonlinear studies of an aniline blue dye in liquid and solid media

Abstract

Solid-state dye-doped polymers are an attractive alternative to conventional liquid dye solutions. In this paper, the spectral characteristics and nonlinear properties of the Aniline Blue dye has been studied. The third-order nonlinear optical properties of the Aniline Blue dye in ethanol and a dye-doped polymer film were measured by the Z-scan technique using a 632.8-nm He-Ne laser. This material exhibits a negative optical non-linearity. The dye at a 0.4-mM concentration exhibited a nonlinear refractive coefficient (n 2 = −4.02 × 10−8 and −4.41 × 10−8 cm2/W in liquid and solid media, respectively), a nonlinear absorption coefficient (β = −9.7 × 10−4 and −11.63 × 10−4 cm/W in liquid and solid media, respectively), and susceptibility (x (3) = 1.844 × 10−6 and 2.028 × 10−6 esu in liquid and solid media, respectively). These results show that the Aniline Blue dye has potential applications in nonlinear optics.