Optical limiting with C(60) and other fullerenes.

In view of a possible application in optical limiting devices for protection against laser radiation, at the Defence Research Establishment Valcartier we have studied the nonlinear transmission properties of fullerenes. The study involved C(60), C(70), C(76), C(84), several derivatives of C(60), and a variety of solvents. The nonlinear measurements were made with 7-ns pulses at 532 nm from a N-d:YAG laser. For optical limiting applications, solutions of C(60) yielded better results than the other fullerenes, with a solution of C(60) in chlorobenzene being marginally the best.