Studies of third-order optical nonlinearities and optical limiting properties of azo dyes

In order to protect optical sensors and human eyes from debilitating laser effects, the intensity of the incoming laser light has to be opportunely reduced. Here, we report our results on the third-order optical nonlinearity and optical limiting properties of three azo dyes exposed to a 532 nm continuous wave laser. We have observed low power optical limiting based on nonlinear refraction in our samples.