Optical limiting properties of 2,6-dibrominated dimethylaminostyryl- and dimethylaminophenylbuta-1,3-dienylBODIPYs on the nanosecond timescale at 532 nm

The need to develop optical limiting materials for the entire UV-visible-NIR region has inspired research to develop novel materials of this type with a strong focus on molecular dyes. In this study, the second harmonic of Nd:YAG nanosecond pulsed lasers at 532 nm is used to test the optical limiting properties of a series of [Formula: see text]-extended BODIPY dyes consisting of 2,6-dibrominated di-(4-dimethylamino)styryl-meso-methylthioBODIPY (1) and di- and mono-(4-dimethylamino)buta-1,3-dienyl-meso-methylthioBODIPY (2 and 3). Z-scan measurements were conducted for 1–3 with a fixed laser pulse energy of 40[Formula: see text]J and a concentration of 10[Formula: see text]M in dimethylsulfoxide (DMSO), toluene and tetrahydrofuran (THF). This facilitated a comparison of the effective nonlinear absorption coefficient ([Formula: see text], imaginary third-order susceptibility (Im[[Formula: see text]]), second-order hyperpolarizability ([Formula: see text] and limiting fluence (I[Formula: see text] values so that trends in their structure-property relationships could be identified.