Pump-probe experiments at 1064 nm in singlewall carbon nanotube suspensions

Singlewall carbon nanotube (SWNT) suspensions have been shown to be good optical limiters mainly because of their nonlinear scattering properties. In this paper, we report on a pump-probe experiment coupled with emission measurements for SWNT's in two solvents (water and chloroform). Time-resolved probe transmission with a pump at 1064 nm and a CW probe at 633 nm permits one to associate optical limiting with the formation of bubbles in the solvent, sublimation of the particles, and cavitation effects at high fluences. We show that the optical limiting behavior of SWNT's for nanosecond pulse duration is better in chloroform than in water due to different thermodynamic properties of the solvents.