Recent developments in organic nonlinear optical materials for application to eye and sensor protection are reviewed. This compendium includes a brief discussion of the functioning of the eye, delineation of some of the important eye protection parameters and an introduction to the origin of nonlinear optical effects and how they are measured. Specific examples of proposed or prototyped protection devices are also presented. A compilation of noteworthy organic third-order nonlinear optical materials is included as an appendix. Lasers are playing an important and increasing role in modern society. Their present uses range from compact disc players to optical data-storage and communication systems. Because of this wide-spread use, the continuing expansion of lasers into other arenas and the low damage thresholds of human eyes and electro-optic sensors, there is increasing concern about eye and sensor protection from laser irradiation.

The vulnerability of human eyes and sensing devices to high power laser radiation presents a critical need in both the military and private sectors for protection devices. These devices must permit normal eye and sensor functions while blocking all damaging wavelengths when subjected to high power radiation. Optical power limiting provides just such a mechanism for this type of passive protection. Optical limiting has been investigated in a number of materials with distinct nonlinear mechanisms 1. Of these materials, the most widely investigated are: (1) Organic and organometallic molecules which rely on reverse saturable absorption (RSA). The more promising RSA materials include heavy-atom-substituted phthalocyanines 2,3, porphyrins 4, and fullerenes 5. The phthalocyanines have demonstrated superiority at the most commonly investigated wavelength of 532 nm, and show optical power limiting for a range of wavelengths in the visible spectral region. Very recent studies have shown enhanced properties of fullerenes in the red and near-IR 6,7,8,9. (2) Colloidal carbon suspensions, which rely on nonlinear scattering. While they yield broadband limiting in the near-IR, carbon suspension materials are widely regarded as unsatisfactory, especially in view of the requirement that they be used in a liquid state.

High power laser pulses can be a threat to optical sensors, including the human eye. Traditionally this threat has been alleviated by colour filters that block radiation in chosen wavelength ranges. Colour filters’ main drawback is that they block radiation regardless of it being useful or damaging, information is lost for wavelengths at which the filter is active. Protecting the entire wavelength range of a sensor would block or strongly attenuate the radiation needed for the operation of the sensor. Sol-gel glasses highly doped with optically non-linear chromophores have previously shown high optical quality in combination with efficient optical power limiting (OPL) through reverse saturable absorption (RSA). These filters transmit visible light unless the light fluence is above a certain threshold. A key design consideration of laser protection filters is linear absorption in relation to the threshold level. A high linear absorption means that the user’s view is degraded by the filter. To model the photokinetics of RSA chromophores, the five-level population model is widely used. It consists of three singlet and two triplet levels. Model parameters relevant for OPL performance include linear absorption cross-sections, two-photon absorption (2PA) cross-sections, lifetimes, quantum yields and inter-system-crossing (ISC) times. The dominant design paradigm is to have a highly absorbing and long-lived triplet state that is quickly populated by ISC during the beginning of a laser pulse. To simultaneously achieve a lower threshold and linear absorption a vast number of materials for self-activated filters were evaluated, either as bulk glasses or solutions. An f/5 setup was used to evaluate their OPL performance while several photophysical measurements were performed to gain an understanding of system behaviour. The first three series of methyltriethoxysilane (MTEOS) Sol-Gel glasses were doped with gold nanoparticles either solely, or with one of two Pt-acetylide chromophores. One with shorter conjugated ligands, the second with similar but longer conjugated ligands. Finally, a series of multi-branched fluorene chromophores were evaluated in solution. Their central moiety was either an organic benzene unit or an ISC promoter in the form of para-dibromobenzene or a platinum(II)-alkynyl unit. For the gold nanoparticle doped glasses, the lower performance Pt-acetylide with short ligands had its OPL threshold lowered at 600nm while the glasses doped with only gold nanoparticles showed no OPL at all. Secondly, the enhancement was most pronounced for very low gold nanoparticle concentrations. While gold nanoparticles alone showed good OPL performance at 532 nm, at this wavelength neither Pt-acetylide showed an obvious OPL enhancement beyond linear absorption losses from codoping with gold nanoparticles. The improved OPL performance at 600 nm was attributed to stronger 2PA, by electric field enhancement from the gold nanoparticles. The lack of detectable OPL improvement for 532 nm and for the higher performance Pt-Acetylide chromophore with long ligands were qualitatively explained by a lower sensitivity to 2PA on system performance. A degraded performance from linear absorption by excess nanoparticles in front of the focus explained the weakening of the enhancement at higher gold nanoparticle concentrations. All three fluorene chromophores, including the chromophore without a central ISC promoter, showed broadband OPL through the visible spectrum. The OPL performance of the two chromophores with ISC promoters was expected considering their transient absorption at microsecond time-scales. For the fluorene chromophore without an ISC-promoter, ultra-fast transient absorption was used to identify singlet excited state absorption as the source of the OPL performance. Both of these series of experiments demonstrate how a simplistic view of simply increasing desired photophysical parameters, e.g. effective 2PA cross-section or ISC quantum yield, do not always result in a noticeable increase in system performance. By employing numerical population models it was possible to identify which parameters had the highest impact on OPL performance. Laserpulser med hög effekt kan vara ett hot mot optiska sensorer, inklusive det oskyddade ögat. Traditionellt har detta hot hanterats med färgfilter som stoppar strålning inom valda våglängdsband. Färgfilters huvudsakliga begränsning ligger i att de tar bort strålning oberoende av om den är användbar eller skadlig, att information försvinner för de våglängder filtret skyddar för. Skydd över hela det våglängdsband en sensor verkar i skulle stoppa eller kraftigt försvaga strålningen som sensorn behöver för att fungera. Sol-gel glas högdopade med optiskt icke-linjära molekyler har tidigare visat hög optisk kvalité i kombination med en effektiv optisk effektbegränsning (OPL) via omvänd blekning (RSA). Dessa filter transmitterar synligt ljus så länge ljusets fluens (pulsenergi per area [J cm-2]) inte ligger över en viss begränsningsnivå. En nyckelfaktor i designen av laserskyddsfilter är linjärabsorption kontra begränsningsnivå. Genom att öka kromoforkoncentrationen så kan begränsningsnivån sänkas till kostnad av ökad linjärabsorption. Detta betyder dock att användarens omvärldsuppfattning genom filtret riskerar att minska. För att modellera fotokinetiken av RSA-molekyler har femnivåpopulationsmodellen varit vida använd. Den består av tre singlet-nivåer och två tripletnivåer. Modellparametrar relevanta för OPL-prestanda innefattar kvantverkningsgrader, olika övergångars linjärabsorptionstvärsnitt, tvåfotonsabsorptionstvärsnitt och livstider samt halveringstider för överföring mellan singlet och triplettillstånd. Den dominanta designparadigmen är att ha ett hög- absorberande och långlivat tripletläge som snabbt populeras i början av en laserpuls. För att samtidigt uppnå en lägre begränsningsnivå och lägre linjärabsorption utvärderades ett flertal självaktiverade filter, antingen i form av glas eller i vätskelösning. En f/5-uppställning användes för att utvärdera deras OPLprestanda medan en mängd fotofysiska mätningar utfördes för att få en förståelse för deras systembeteende. De tre första serierna av MTEOS Sol-Gel glas var dopade med guldnanopartiklar antingen enbart, eller med en av två Pt(II)-acetylidmolekyler. Den första hade kortare konjugerade ligandarmar, den andra var liknande men hade längre ligandarmar. Slutligen utvärderades en serie av flerarmade flourenmolekyler i vätskelösning. Deras centrala enhet bestod antingen av en organisk bensenring eller en ISC-gynnare i form av para-dibromobensen eller en Pt(II)-acetylidenhet. Guldnanopartiklarna kunde förstärka OPL-prestandan för enbart den mindre effektiva korta Pt(II)-acetylidmolekylen på 600nm men ej 532nm. Filtren dopade med enbart guldnanopartiklar visade god prestanda på 532nm men ingen på 600nm. Alla tre fluorenmolekyler visade OPL genom det synliga spektrat, även den molekylen utan ISC-gynnare. Både dessa serier experiment demonstrerar hur ett förenklat angreppsätt med att enbart öka eftertraktade fotofysiska parametrar, t.ex. effektivt 2PA-tvärsnitt eller ISC-kvantverkningsgrad, inte alltid resulterar i märkbart ökad systemprestanda. Genom att använda numeriska populationsmodeller visas hur det är möjligt att identifiera vilka parametrar som har den största inverkan på OPL-prestanda.