Third-order optical nonlinearity in nucleobase solid thin solid film and its application for ultrashort light pulse generation

Abstract

Adenine, guanine, cytosine, and thymine are the fundamental constituents of both DNA and RNA, the building blocks of living organisms. We revealed the nonlinear optical properties of these nucleobases in...

Highly nonlinear optic nucleic acid thin-solid film to generate short pulse laser

“…DNA-TSF 5 and nucleobase TSF 9 showed n 2 ~ 10 –12 cm 2 /W, and β of 10 –9 ~ 10 –8 m/W in the similar spectral range. RNA-TSFs showed nearly the same n 2 but less β, resulting in a magnitude of χ (3) ~ 10 -10 esu.…”

“…RNA-TSFs showed nearly the same n 2 but less β, resulting in a magnitude of χ (3) ~ 10 -10 esu. The magnitude of χ (3) was comparable or larger than those of DNA (~ 10 –11 ) 5 and nucleobase TSFs( Adenine and Guanine: ~ 10 –11 , Cytosine and Thymine: ~ 10 –10 ) 9 . When compared with other organic nonlinear optic materials 9 , 53 , 54 RNA TSF showed significantly higher χ (3) , and we pursued its applications in short pulse lasers as explained in the following sections.…”

“…( 2 ) 64 – 68 . Note that the modulation depth of RNA was larger than DNA ( a 0 ~ 0.4%) and nucleobases ( a 0 ~ 0.4 ~ 0.9 wt%) 5 , 9 . Figure 2 c shows the top view of RNA-TSF on SPOF observed by an optical microscope.…”

“…In recent years, researchers have been exploring the use of novel biomaterials 1 – 4 , such as deoxyribonucleic acid (DNA) 5 – 8 and nucleobases 9 , 10 , as saturable absorbers in generating pulsed lasers in various optical gain media. One of the advantages of utilizing these fundamental biological constituents is their unparalleled abundance in nature 11 , 12 .…”

“…Furthermore, they possess inherent bio-compatibility, making them ideal for biomedical applications and a well-proven capability to integrate biochemical functionalities 15 , 16 . The authors' group has experimentally demonstrated short pulse generation using a thin solid film (TSF) of DNA 5 , 8 and nucleobases 9 , providing compelling evidence for their high potential in nonlinear optic applications.…”