Optical power limiting and stabilization using a two-photon absorbing neat liquid crystal in isotropic phase

This letter reports on a neat liquid crystal that incorporates a two-photon-absorbing chromophore in its structure. The nonlinear optical properties including two-photon-induced fluorescence spectrum and decay behavior, as well as the effective two-photon absorption coefficient of this liquid crystal in its isotropic phase are presented. Fairly good optical limiting and stabilization performance with this nonlinear material have been achieved by using ∼815-nm and ∼5-ns laser pulses.