Hybrid Materials and Non Linear Absorption: Influence of the Structure and Interactions at the Molecular Level
Cédric Desroches, Roman Zieba, Frédéric Chaput, Marcus Carlsson, Bertil Eliasson, Cesar Lopes, Mikael Lindgren and Stephane Parola
The preparation of siloxane-based hybrid materials from organometallic chromophores through the sol-gel process is described in this article. Glass materials prepared from trans-[P(n-Bu)3]2Pt[(C≡C-p-C6H4−C≡C-p– C6H4−CH2O(CO)NH(CH2)3−Si(OC2H5)3]2 show transmittance similar to that of solutions. Optical power limiting measurements on the hybrid materials show broadband nonlinear absorption at 532 nm, 580 nm and 630 nm. Phosphorescence is detected at 525 nm at room temperature, with a decay time of 8μs. The processing conditions for the elaboration of the materials play an important role on the structure of the materials, and thus on the luminescence and the OPL response. The sol-gel process appears to be a valid method for formation of high quality silicate materials with grafted diarylethynyl Pt(II) complexes for OPL devices.
Keywords: Sol-gel, hybrid, monolith, nonlinear absorption, optical power limiting.