Gheorghe Petronela, Petris Adrian, Anton Adina Mirela
National Institute for Laser, Plasma and Radiation Physics, 409 Atomistilor Street, 077125 Magurele, Romania.
Faculty of Chemical Engineering and Biotechnologies, National University of Science and Technology Politehnica Bucharest, 1-7 Polizu Street, 011061 Bucharest, Romania.
Polymers (Basel). 2023 Dec 28;16(1):96. doi: 10.3390/polym16010096.
The high-power lasers have important implications for present and future light-based technologies; therefore, the protection measures against their high-intensity radiation are extremely important. Currently, a great deal of interest is directed towards the development of new nonlinear optical materials for passive optical limiters, which are used to protect the human eye and sensitive optical and optoelectronic devices from laser-induced damage. Biopolymers doped with natural dyes are emerging as a new class of optical materials with interesting photosensitive properties. In this paper, the optical limiting capability of deoxyribonucleic acid bio-polymer functionalized with Turmeric natural dye has been demonstrated for the first time, to the best of our knowledge. The experimental investigation of the optical limit has been done by the Intensity-scan method in the NIR spectral domain at the important telecommunication wavelength of 1550 nm, using ultrashort laser pulses (~120 fs). Several optical properties of this natural dye are presented and discussed. The values of the optical transmittance in the linear regime, the saturation intensity of the nonlinear transmittance curves, and the coefficient of the nonlinear absorption have been determined. The influence of the DNA biopolymer and natural dye concentration on the optical limiting properties of the investigated biomaterials is reported and discussed. The photostability and thermal stability of the investigated solutions have also been evaluated by monitoring the temporal decay of the normalized absorption spectra under illumination with UVA light and heating, respectively. Our results evidence the positive influence of the DNA, which embeds Turmeric natural dye, on the optical limiting functionality itself and on the photostability and thermal stability of this novel material. The performed study reveals the potential of the investigated novel biomaterial for applications in nonlinear photonics, in particular in optical limiting.
高功率激光对当前和未来的光基技术具有重要意义；因此，针对其高强度辐射的防护措施极其重要。目前，人们对用于被动光学限幅器的新型非线性光学材料的开发极为关注，这些材料用于保护人眼以及敏感的光学和光电器件免受激光诱导的损伤。掺杂天然染料的生物聚合物正成为一类具有有趣光敏特性的新型光学材料。据我们所知，本文首次证明了用姜黄天然染料功能化的脱氧核糖核酸生物聚合物的光学限幅能力。在1550 nm这一重要电信波长的近红外光谱域，使用超短激光脉冲（~120 fs），通过强度扫描法对光学限幅进行了实验研究。介绍并讨论了这种天然染料的几种光学性质。测定了线性区的光学透过率值、非线性透过率曲线的饱和强度以及非线性吸收系数。报道并讨论了DNA生物聚合物和天然染料浓度对所研究生物材料光学限幅性能的影响。还分别通过监测在紫外光照射和加热下归一化吸收光谱的时间衰减，评估了所研究溶液的光稳定性和热稳定性。我们的结果证明了嵌入姜黄天然染料的DNA对光学限幅功能本身以及这种新型材料的光稳定性和热稳定性具有积极影响。所进行的研究揭示了所研究的新型生物材料在非线性光子学，特别是光学限幅方面的应用潜力。
