Third-order bound-charge electronic nonlinearities of Si nanocrystals (NCs) embedded in a wide band-gap matrix representing silica are theoretically studied using an atomistic pseudopotential approach. Nonlinear refractive index, two-photon absorption and optical switching parameter are examined from small clusters to NCs up to a size of 3 nm. Compared to bulk values, Si NCs show higher third-o...

Single- and few-layer crystals of exfoliated MoTe2 have been characterized spectroscopically by photoluminescence, Raman scattering, and optical absorption measurements. We find that MoTe2 in the monolayer limit displays strong photoluminescence. On the basis of complementary optical absorption results, we conclude that monolayer MoTe2 is a direct-gap semiconductor with an optical band gap of 1...

In this paper, an automated procedure is implemented for detecting breast cancers based on optical tomographic images obtained by a phase-contrast diffuse optical tomography (PCDOT) system, which can measure the refractive indices of human breast masses in vivo, in addition to the absorption and scattering coefficients obtained by a traditional diffuse optical tomography (DOT) system. This clas...

We report an experimental investigation of the nonlinear optical properties of nanoporous silicon optical waveguides measured at 1550 nm. The nonlinear properties including two-photon absorption, self-phase modulation, free-carrier absorption and free-carrier plasma dispersion are characterized and compared with similar measurements conducted on a conventional silicon-on-insulator ridge wavegui...

Non linear absorption is a non linear optical property which can be observed with large photon intensities and corresponds to instantaneous or sequential absorption of more than one photon. Highly polarisable molecules show high non linear optical activity and in the following it will be presented the multiphoton absorption properties of tetramethyltetratiafulvalene (TMTTF), its radical cation ...

The absorption spectrum of light is known to be a "molecular fingerprint" that enables analysis of the molecular type and its amount. It would be useful to measure the absorption spectrum in single cell in order to investigate the cellular status. However, cells are too thin for their absorption spectrum to be measured. In this study, we developed an optical-cavity-enhanced absorption spectrosc...

The oxidation state of chromium in glasses melted in an air atmosphere with and without refining agents was investigated by Cr K-edge X-ray Absorption Near-Edge Structure (XANES) and optical absorption spectroscopy. A good agreement in the relative proportion of Cr(III) and Cr(VI) is obtained between both methods. We show that the chemical dependence of the absorption coefficient of Cr(III) is ...

We present a study of the terahertz (Tilz) generation by optical rectification in a 2 mm thick <110> ZnTe crystal. The conditions for the most efficient THz generation are described. We investigate the competition between optical rectification (OR), second harmonic generation (SHG), two photon absorption (TPA) and free-carrier absorption in the diffraction limit, for excitation spot sizes small...

We report strong instantaneous photoinduced absorption in the quasi-one-dimensional Mott insulator Sr 2 CuO 3 in the IR spectral region. The observed photoinduced absorption is to an even-parity two-photon state that occurs immediately above the absorption edge. Theoretical calculation based on a two-band extended Hubbard model explains the experimental features and indicates that the strong tw...

The optical absorption of nanoscale thickness semiconductor films on top of light-trapping structures based on optical interference effects combined with spectrum-splitting structures is theoretically investigated. Nearly perfect absorption over a broad spectrum range can be achieved in <100 nm thick films on top of a one-dimensional photonic crystal or metal films. This phenomenon can be attri...