Optical limiting properties of zinc- and platinum-based organometallic compounds

Optical power limiting is theoretically studied using an approach that combines quantum electronic structure calculations of multiphoton excitations and classical calculations of dynamical wave propagation. We illustrate the capability of such a combined approach by presenting results for a couple of organometallic compounds; basic metal-base porphyrins, vinylphenylamine porhyrin, and the so-called type IVc platinum compound. A comparative analysis of their electronic properties related to nonlinear absorption of electromagnetic radiation and their optical limiting capability has been performed based on dynamical simulations of the nonlinear pulse propagation taking account of resonant as well as off-resonant effects. Several key features and rate-limiting steps in the transmission have been examined in relation to various characteristics of the pulse. It is found that the resonant vs off-resonant conditions, the saturation conditions and the dephasing play critical roles for the nonlinear transmission. The saturation effects are sensitive to the pulse duration, the inter-system crossing rate and the quenching of the higher triplet state. The inter-system crossing rate has to be comparable with the inverse pulse duration in order to boost the stepwise two-photon channel associated with singlet-singlet followed by triplet-triplet transitions. It is illustrated that structure-to-property relations of the rate-limiting steps serve as important criteria for choices of compounds suitable for the application of interest.