Nonlinear optical responses of photopolymerizable CdSe quantum dot-polymer nanocomposites capable of holographically patterning photonic lattice structures

We report on the fabrication of photopolymerizable polymer nanocomposites dispersed with semiconductor CdSe quantum dots as high as 0.91 vol.% (3.6 wt.%) and on their nonlinear optical responses measured by degenerate multi-wave mixing with a 532-nm picosecond laser. We show that multi-order self-diffracted beams are induced in a uniformly cured composite film, indicating that the composite film possesses the simultaneous third- and fifth-order nonlinear refraction. We also show nonlinear Bragg diffraction from a Bragg grating holographically pre-recorded in the composite film.