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A special issue of Materials (ISSN 1996-1944).

Deadline for manuscript submissions: closed (31 August 2020) | Viewed by 15402

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Prof. Dr. Luca Rigamonti

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Dipartimento di Scienze Chimiche e Geologiche, Università degli Studi di Modena e Reggio Emilia, 41125 Modena, Italy
Interests: coordination chemistry; electronic modulation; structure-property correlation studies; Schiff base ligands; magnetic properties
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Dear Colleagues,

Nonlinear optics (NLO) started to be explored by Franken et al., in 1961, with the discovery of second-harmonic generation (SHG) or frequency doubling. That happened right after the construction of the first laser by Maiman in 1960, of which the electric field intensity was sufficient to induce the nonlinear response of matter. Since then, NLO has started finding several applications with a growing impact on today’s daily life in different areas, such as lasers, interaction with materials and information technology. The interest in this field has led to the synthesis of several compounds over the years, both organic molecules and coordination complexes, in order to provide coherent light of different wavelengths, materials interaction through multi-photon absorption (photodynamic therapy in medicine, optical power limiting applications, etc.), advanced spectroscopy and materials analysis, possible applications to communications and sensors, and so on. This Special Issue aims to collect new advances in the synthesis, and experimental and theoretical characterization of new materials, ranging from purely organic derivatives to transition metal and lanthanide complexes, coordination polymers and hybrid systems, and description of their linear and nonlinear optical properties, such as SHG, multi-photon absorption, etc.

Dr. Luca Rigamonti
Guest Editor

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Keywords

nonlinear optics (NLO)
organic molecules
transition metals
lanthanides
coordination polymers
hybrid materials
optical properties
second-harmonic generation
multi-photon absorption
theoretical calculations

Published Papers (5 papers)

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Research

19 pages, 2003 KiB

Open AccessArticle

Solid-State Nonlinear Optical Properties of Mononuclear Copper(II) Complexes with Chiral Tridentate and Tetradentate Schiff Base Ligands

by Luca Rigamonti, Alessandra Forni, Elena Cariati, Gianluca Malavasi and Alessandro Pasini

Materials 2019, 12(21), 3595; https://doi.org/10.3390/ma12213595 - 01 Nov 2019

Cited by 20 | Viewed by 2492

Abstract

Salen-type metal complexes have been actively studied for their nonlinear optical (NLO) properties, and push-pull compounds with charge asymmetry generated by electron releasing and withdrawing groups have shown promising results. As a continuation of our research in this field and aiming at solid-state features, herein we report on the synthesis of mononuclear copper(II) derivatives bearing either tridentate N₂O Schiff bases L^(a−c)− and pyridine as the forth ancillary ligand, [Cu(L^a−c)(py)](ClO₄) (1a–c), or unsymmetrically-substituted push-pull tetradentate N₂O₂ Schiff base ligands, [Cu(5-A-5′-D-saldpen/chxn)] (2a–c), both derived from 5-substituted salicylaldehydes (sal) and the diamines (1R,2R)-1,2-diphenylethanediamine (dpen) and (1S,2S)-1,2-diaminocyclohexane (chxn). All compounds were characterized through elemental analysis, infrared and UV/visible spectroscopies, and mass spectrometry in order to guarantee their purity and assess their charge transfer properties. The structures of 1a–c were determined via single-crystal X-ray diffraction studies. The geometries of cations of 1a–c and of molecules 2a–c were optimized through DFT calculations. The solid-state NLO behavior was measured by the Kurtz–Perry powder technique @1.907 µm. All chiral derivatives possess non-zero quadratic electric susceptibility (χ⁽²⁾) and an efficiency of about 0.15–0.45 times that of standard urea. Full article

(This article belongs to the Special Issue Trends in Nonlinear Optical Materials)

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11 pages, 1211 KiB

Open AccessArticle

Effect of Conduction Band Non-Parabolicity on the Nonlinear Optical Properties in GaAs/Ga_1−xAl_xAs Double Semi-V-shaped Quantum Wells

by Zhi-Hai Zhang, Jian-Hui Yuan, Kang-Xian Guo and Elmustapha Feddi

Materials 2019, 12(1), 78; https://doi.org/10.3390/ma12010078 - 26 Dec 2018

Cited by 21 | Viewed by 2910

Abstract

In this paper, we investigate the effect of conduction band non-parabolicity (NPBE) on the third harmonic generation(THG), the linear and nonlinear intersub-band optical absorption coefficients (OACs) related with electronic states of double semi-V-shaped GaAs/Ga_1−xAl_xAs quantum wells(QWs) by using the compact-density-matrix approach. Simultaneously, the work is performed in the position dependent effective mass in order to compute the electronic structure for the system by the finite difference and self-consistent techniques. We also compare the results with and without considering NPBE. It is found that: (1) the NPBE has a significant influence on the sub-band energy levels of double semi-V-shaped QWs, and (2) the amplitude and position of the resonant peaks of the THG and nonlinear OACs in the case of considering NPBE show complicated behavior due to the energy dependent effective mass m*(E) where the energy value was chosen self-consistently. Full article

(This article belongs to the Special Issue Trends in Nonlinear Optical Materials)

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13 pages, 4809 KiB

Open AccessArticle

Interplay of Thermo-Optic and Reorientational Responses in Nematicon Generation

by Urszula A. Laudyn, Armando Piccardi, Michal Kwasny, Bartlomiej Klus, Miroslaw A. Karpierz and Gaetano Assanto

Materials 2018, 11(10), 1837; https://doi.org/10.3390/ma11101837 - 27 Sep 2018

Cited by 14 | Viewed by 2500

Abstract

Employing several nematic liquid crystal mixtures, we investigate how the thermo-optic response of nonlinear birefringent soft-matter affects the propagation of light beams and the features of self-induced waveguides. We address the formation of optical spatial solitons and the control of their trajectories versus temperature, comparing the measurements with the expectations based on a simplified model, showing an excellent agreement. Moreover, in a guest–host mixture with an absorbing dye dopant, we study the competition between reorientational and thermal nonlinearities, demonstrating that the two processes can be adjusted independently in order to tune the soliton properties, i.e., trajectory and confinement strength. Our results are an important contribution to better comprehend the role played by material properties on linear and nonlinear beam propagation, as well as their exploitation for signal processing and addressing. Full article

(This article belongs to the Special Issue Trends in Nonlinear Optical Materials)

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9 pages, 1006 KiB

Open AccessArticle

Composition Relation between Nonlinear Bloch Waves and Gap Solitons in Periodic Fractional Systems

by Liangwei Dong and Changming Huang

Materials 2018, 11(7), 1134; https://doi.org/10.3390/ma11071134 - 04 Jul 2018

Cited by 14 | Viewed by 2847

Abstract

Evolution of beams in nonlinear optical media with a fractional-order diffraction is currently attracting a growing interest. We address the existence of linear and nonlinear Bloch waves in fractional systems with a periodic potential. Under a defocusing nonlinearity, nonlinear Bloch waves at the centers or edges of the first Brillouin zone bifurcate from the corresponding linear Bloch modes at different band edges. They can be constructed by directly copying a fundamental gap soliton (in one lattice site) or alternatively copying it and its mirror image to infinite lattice channels. The localized truncated-Bloch-wave solitons bridging nonlinear Bloch waves and gap solitons are also revealed. We thus prove that fundamental gap solitons can be used as unit cells to build nonlinear Bloch waves or truncated-Bloch-wave solitons, even in fractional configurations. Our results provide helpful hints for understanding the dynamics of localized and delocalized nonlinear modes and the relation between them in periodic fractional systems with an optical nonlinearity. Full article

(This article belongs to the Special Issue Trends in Nonlinear Optical Materials)

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10 pages, 2766 KiB

Open AccessArticle

The Combined Influence of Hydrostatic Pressure and Temperature on Nonlinear Optical Properties of GaAs/Ga_0.7Al_0.3As Morse Quantum Well in the Presence of an Applied Magnetic Field

by Zhi-Hai Zhang, Jian-Hui Yuan and Kang-Xian Guo

Materials 2018, 11(5), 668; https://doi.org/10.3390/ma11050668 - 25 Apr 2018

Cited by 26 | Viewed by 3525

Abstract

Studies aimed at understanding the nonlinear optical (NLO) properties of GaAs/Ga_0.7Al_0.3As morse quantum well (QW) have focused on the intersubband optical absorption coefficients (OACs) and refractive index changes (RICs). These studies have taken two complimentary approaches: (1) The compact-density-matrix approach and iterative method have been used to obtain the expressions of OACs and RICs in morse QW. (2) Finite difference techniques have been used to obtain energy eigenvalues and their corresponding eigenfunctions of GaAs/Ga_0.7Al_0.3As morse QW under an applied magnetic field, hydrostatic pressure, and temperature. Our results show that the hydrostatic pressure and magnetic field have a significant influence on the position and the magnitude of the resonant peaks of the nonlinear OACs and RICs. Simultaneously, a saturation case is observed on the total absorption spectrum, which is modulated by the hydrostatic pressure and magnetic field. Physical reasons have been analyzed in depth. Full article

(This article belongs to the Special Issue Trends in Nonlinear Optical Materials)

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