P405
Sol-gel synthesis and nonlinear optical property of silica thin films doped with cyanine dye J aggregates
Takashi Watanabe, Takashi Watanabe, Haoshen Zhou*, Akihiro Mito**, Itaru Honma*, Keisuke Asai, Kenkichi Ishigure
U. of Tokyo, *ETL, **NRLM

We first synthesized a thin silica film doped with condensed J aggregates of cyanine dyes by brief and simple sol-gel method. They were characterized by absorption spectroscopy and fluorescence microscopy. In spite of containing plenty of the J aggregates, these films are isotropic in distribution and direction of J aggregates, homogeneous in thickness and stable at room temperature. Since the fine crystals of the J aggregates are embedded into the silica films, the stability of the J aggregates was improved. In addition, their nonlinear optical properties were measured by Z-scan method by using 180 femtoseconds laser pulse beam. The measurement was performed at 77K in vacuum environment (<10-5 Torr). Absolute value of third order susceptibility of them is 5x10-7esu at J aggregate absorption band (576nm). Thus, the films would be useful as practical materials for nonlinear optical devices.

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