Nanomaterials as optical limiters

Optical limiters based on several different classes of nanomaterials are re viewed. The systems under consideration include metal and semiconductor nan oparticles and nanoscale carbon materials. For the latter, the optical limi ting properties of carbon nanoparticles, fullerenes, and suspended and solu bilized carbon nanotubes are summarized and compared. Mechanistic implicati ons of the available experimental results are discussed in terms of the com parison between nonlinear scattering versus nonlinear absorption as the dom inating optical limiting mechanism for different nanomaterials and for diff erent physico-chemical states of a nanomaterial.