Nanostructured polymeric optical limiter materials

Summary form only given. A new type of nonlinear nano-layered polymeric optical limiter material is described. The specific materials described here comprise 4096 alternating polymer layers with an average layer thickness of about 90 nm and another with an average layer thickness near 31 nm. A nonlinear response is introduced by including an appropriate dye in alternate polymer layers. The nonlinear nano-layered materials possess a modulation in the nonlinear refractive index in the direction normal to the surface. When the layer thickness is approximately a quarter wavelength, the new materials correspond to a dielectric stack where the refractive index difference between the layers is intensity dependent. Such materials have several uses including particular optical limiting. Several nano-layered materials using optical limiter dyes in alternate layers were fabricated. The response time for the reflectivity change in a 91 nm nanolayered polymer dyed with PbPc(CP)/sub 4/ was of the order of 1 picosecond.