Optical limiting properties of singlewall carbon nanotubes

We report on the optical limiting performances of singlewall carbon nanotub es. The nonlinear transmission of the samples is investigated using nanosec ond Nd:YAG laser pulses at 532 nm and 1064nm. Z-scan experiments are carrie d out at different incident energies in order to identify the effects respo nsible for nonlinear transmission. We find that nonlinear scattering and no nlinear refraction are the dominant mechanisms. Optical limiting efficienci es are compared with those of multiwall nanotubes, carbon black suspensions and fullerenes. (C) 2000 Elsevier Science B.V. All rights reserved.