Investigation of Nonlinear Optical Characteristics of the Multi-Wall Carbon Nanotubes (MWCNT's) Suspensions using Nonlinear Self-Diffraction of a Laser Beam

Abstract

Nonlinear diffraction patterns can be obtained by focusing a laser beam through a thin slice of the material. Here, we investigated experimentally the formation of the far field nonlinear diffraction patterns of cw laser beam at 532 nm passing through a quartz cuvette containing multi-wall carbon nanotubes (MWCNT's) suspended in acetone and in DI water at concentrations of 0.030.wt.%, 0.045 wt.%, 0.060 wt.%, and 0.075 wt.%. Our results show that increasing the concentration of both types of suspensions (MWCNTs in acetone and MWCNTs DI water) led to increase in the number of pattern rings which indicates an increase in their nonlinear refractive indices. Moreover, MWCNTs DI water suspension at a concentration of 0.075 wt. % was more efficient for achieving a high optical nonlinearity.