Eur. Phys. J. D (2021) 75: 243
https://doi.org/10.1140/epjd/s10053-021-00242-0

Regular Article – Optical Phenomena and Photonics

Third-order optical nonlinearity in molybdenum trioxide (${\text{MoO}}_3$)-doped vanadium pentaoxide (${\text{V}}_2{\text{O}}_5$) thin films

¹ Laser Laboratory, Department of Physics, Guru Jambheshwar University of Science and Technology, 125001, Hisar, Haryana, India
² Department of School Education, Hisar, Haryana, India
³ Instruments Research and Development Establishment (IRDE), Dehradun, Uttrakhand, India

^a poonamloura93@gmail.com

Received: 21 May 2021
Accepted: 9 August 2021
Published online: 14 September 2021

Abstract

The present work focuses on investigation of laser-induced third-order optical nonlinearity in molybdenum trioxide (${\text{MoO}}_3$)-doped vanadium pentaoxide (${\text{V}}_2{\text{O}}_5$) thin films. ${\text{MoO}}_3$ has been doped in ${\text{V}}_2{\text{O}}_5$ at different concentrations and thin films (${\text{MoO}}_3:{\text{V}}_2{\text{O}}_5$) with varying thickness have been deposited on glass substrate by standard thermal evaporation method. X-ray diffraction studies show that deposited films have orthorhombic structure and the lattice parameters change with amount of doping as well as with the thickness of the film. A Nd:YAG-pulsed laser beam having wavelength $\sim$ 532nm has been used as excitation source. Intensity-dependent absorption coefficient ($\mathrm{\beta }$), nonlinear refractive index ($n_2$) and cubic nonlinear susceptibility (${\chi }^3$) have been estimated using single-beam Z-scan technique. A concentration-dependent switching of optical nonlinearity has been observed occurring due to internal self-action effects. Optical limiting behavior has also been reported with limiting threshold ($T_L$). Existence of strong third-order optical nonlinear susceptibility $({\mathrm{\chi }}^3$) with quite low limiting threshold ($T_L$) for visible laser beam confirms that ${\text{MoO}}_3:{\text{V}}_2{\text{O}}_5$ thin films have a great potential for the applications in photonic devices.