Impressive nonlinear optical response exhibited by Poly(vinylidene fluoride) (PVDF)/reduced graphene oxide (RGO) nanocomposite films

Open aperture Z-scan curves at different energies of laser for PVDF/RGO nanocomposite films. [Display omitted] •Freestanding films of PVDF/RGO were obtained by simple processing technique.•Observation of impressive nonlinear optical response even for low laser fluence.•The minimum transmittance obtained is 10% for the laser pulse energy of 25µJ.•The optical limiting threshold power obtained around 7.84MW/cm2, is much lower. In the present work, the nonlinear optical properties of free-standing films of Poly(vinylidene fluoride) (PVDF)/reduced graphene oxide (RGO) nanocomposite are investigated to assess their suitability as efficient optical limiters. The PVDF/RGO nanocomposite films are generated by mixing different concentrations of RGO as the filler, with PVDF, using solution casting method. The XRD and FTIR data of these nanocomposite films confirm the enhancement in the β phase of PVDF when RGO is added to PVDF, which is one of the prime factors, enhancing the nonlinear response of the nanocomposite. The open aperture and closed aperture Z-scan technique under nanosecond excitation (532nm, 7ns) is used to investigate the nonlinear optical characteristics of the PVDF/RGO nanocomposite films. These films are found to exhibit two photon absorption assisted optical non linearity in the nanosecond regime. The highlight of the present work is the observation of quite low values of the normalized transmittance and low optical limiting threshold power in free standing films of PVDF/RGO nanocomposite. These flexible, free-standing and stable nanocomposite films offer high application prospects in the design of efficient optical limiting devices of any desired size or shape.