Investigation on the Third Order Nonlinear Optical Properties of Ce1 – xCdxO2/PAA Nanocomposites

CeO2/PAA and Cd2+ substituted CeO2/PAA nanocomposites (NCs) have been synthesized by in-situ chemical method. For all of the nanocomposites, X-ray diffraction (XRD) studies confirm the cubic structure of CeO2. The scanning electron microscopy (SEM) shows that the CeO2 nanoparticles (NPs) are spherical in shape and aggregate less with increasing Cd2+ ion concentration. The construction of nanocomposites containing Cd2+ substituted CeO2 and poly acrylic acid (PAA) is confirmed by Fourier transform infra-red (FTIR) spectra. The absorption spectra show the blue shifted phenomenon. The two emission bands ascribed to near band edge emission and blue emission are visible in photoluminescence spectra. The Z-scan technique was used to conduct nonlinear optical studies on CeO2/PAA and Cd2+ substituted CeO2/PAA NCs. The third order nonlinear optical susceptibility and figure of merit of CeO2/PAA NCs increase with increasing Cd2+ substitution concentration and are found to be 3.486 × 10–5 and 1.660 × 10–8 esu m for Ce0.09Cd0.01O2/PAA NCs. The nonlinear optical coefficients are higher than previously reported values for other nanocomposite materials. The current findings suggest that Cd2+ substituted CeO2/PAA NCs is a feasible material for the fabrication of nonlinear optical devices.