Simultaneous estimation of optical nonlinear refractive and absorptive parameters by solvent induced changes in optical density

With picosecond pulses at the wavelength of 532 nm, we have determined the optical nonlinear refractive and absorptive parameters of the dye N,N′-bis(2,5-di-tert-butylphenyl)-3,4,9,10-perylenedicarboximide (DBPI) by a single closed-aperture (CA) Z-scan technique. This technique uses a theoretical model that elucidates the refractive and absorptive optical nonlinearity present simultaneously in the CA Z-scan profile. The observed remarkable red shift in the absorption spectrum of the dye in the acidic medium as compared to that in the polar medium has been used to vary the optical density at a single frequency. We find that the effect of saturable absorption (SA) is complete at higher concentrations. The effect of reverse saturable absorption (RSA) is dominating in dilute concentrations. The observed variations in the excited state refractive cross-section (σr) with the concentration and the energy have been attributed to the contributions of higher order nonlinearity along with the existing third-order nonlinearity.