Optical limiting properties in copper oxide thin films under a high-repetition-rate femtosecond laser

CuO nanocrystalline thin films are deposited on quartz substrates by pulsed laser deposition. The grown single-phase CuO films are characterized by X-ray diffraction, X-ray photoelectron spectrometer and transmission electron microscopy. The optical nonlinearity of CuO films is investigated by the Z-scan method under a high-repetition-rate (HRR) femtosecond laser (800 nm, 50 fs, 80 MHz). The CuO nanocrystalline films are found to be good optical limiters with a limiting threshold of 0.3 GW/cm2 and a damage threshold of 1.65 GW/cm2. The possible mechanisms of the optical limiting are also proposed.

► Single-phase CuO nanocrystalline thin films are fabricated by pulsed laser deposition.
► Optical limiting effect of CuO films has been observed by the Z-scan method under a high-repetition-rate (HRR) femtosecond laser (800 nm, 50 fs, 80 MHz).
► The CuO nanocrystalline films are good optical limiters with a limiting threshold of 0.3 GW/cm2 and a damage threshold of 1.65 GW/cm2.