Near-resonant two-photon absorption in luminescent CdTe quantum dots

Abstract

We report the nonlinear optical absorption studies in two differently sized water-soluble cadmium telluride quantum dot (QD) samples, exhibiting first excitonic absorption peaks at 493 nm and 551 nm, respectively. An optical limiting behavior is observed for near-resonant excitation at 532 nm using nanosecond laser pulses, originating from the effective two-photon absorption (TPA) mechanism. The effective TPA coefficient (βeff) is measured to be in the range of 10−12 m/W. This is one order of magnitude higher than the TPA coefficient (β) reported for off-resonant excitation. At this excitation wavelength, the smaller QD shows a relatively weaker photoluminescence and stronger nonlinear absorption.