Enhancement of third-order nonlinear optical susceptibility of Alq3 in polar aprotic solvents

Opt Lett. 2017 Feb 1;42(3):567-570. doi: 10.1364/OL.42.000567.

Abstract

The influence of solvent polarity on nonlinear optical properties of tris-(8-hydroxyquinoline)-aluminum (Alq3) was investigated by the degenerate four-wave mixing method at the 532 nm. It was obtained that the effective values of the third-order nonlinear optical susceptibility (χeff⟨3⟩) and the second-order hyperpolarizability (γeff) of Alq3 depend on the solvent polarity. Additionally, it was found that Alq3 dissolved in dimethyl sulfoxide has the highest values of χeff⟨3⟩ and γeff. Furthermore, two Stegeman's figures of merit were also calculated. The obtained results suggest that Alq3 is also promising material for application in all-optical signal processing devices.