Picosecond nonlinear optical response of Ba0.5Sr0.5TiO3 thin films fabricated by pulsed laser deposition

Well-crystallized Ba0.5Sr0.5TiO3 thin films with good surface morphology were prepared on MgO(1 0 0) substrates by pulsed laser deposition technique at a deposition temperature of 800 °C under the oxygen pressure of 2 × 10−3 Pa. X-ray diffraction and atomic force microscopy were used to characterize the films. The full width at half maximum of the (0 0 2) Ba0.5Sr0.5TiO3 rocking curve and the root-mean-square surface roughness within the 5 μm × 5 μm area were 0.542° and 0.555 nm, respectively. The nonlinear optical properties of the films were determined by a single beam Z-scan method at a wavelength of 532 nm with laser duration of 55 ps. The results show that Ba0.5Sr0.5TiO3 thin films exhibit a fast third-order nonlinear optical response with the nonlinear refractive index and nonlinear absorption coefficient being n2 = 5.04 × 10−6 cm2/kW and β = 3.59 × 10−6 (m/W), respectively.