Natural materials with enhanced optical damage threshold

We report hereby the results of our study on optical damage threshold of DNA and DNA-CTMA thin films, doped with natural chromophores extracts. The films were obtained by spin coating on glass substrates. Their morphology was studied by scanning electron microscopy. Their optical damage threshold, which is an important parameter determining practical application of materials in photonics, was studied using a Q switched Nd:YAG laser, operating at 1064.2 nm with 6 ns pulse duration. The study shows that the doping extracts increase significantly this parameter. In some cases it depends also on the method used to obtain the thin film solutions.