Investigations of intensity dependant nonlinear optical properties of betanin/ZnO composites embedded in PVA

In this report, we report the intensity dependant nonlinear absorption properties of bio-inspired hybrid materials (betanin-ZnO) embedded in polymeric matrices through the Z-scan technique using an Nd: YAG laser (532 nm, 7 ns, 10 Hz). We observed a change over in the sign of nonlinearity due to the interplay of exciton bleaching and optical limiting mechanisms. Light confinement effect and ship-in-a bottle effect play crucial roles. Theoretical analysis has been performed using a model based on nonlinear absorption coefficient and saturation intensity. The result of present study gives an additional mechanism for the gain enhancement in dye doped ZnO matrix.