Design and evaluation of carbon nanotube based optical power limiting materials

Optical power limiters (OPLs) are "smart materials" that follow passive approaches to provide laser protection. They have the potential for protecting optical sensors and possibly even human eyes from laser-pulse damage. Optical power limiting has been a subject of increasing interest for more than two decades now. The interest is due to the increasingly large number of applications based on lasers that are currently available. Several research groups have been attempting to develop novel OPL materials based on nonlinear optical (NLO) chromophores. As a result, there are a large number of publications and patents on this subject. To date, however, there is not a single OPL material available which, taken individually, can provide ideal and smooth attenuation of an output beam. Therefore, the design and development of radically new types of materials for OPL is urgently required. During the last few years, materials containing carbon nanotubes (CNTs) have established themselves as some of the best-performing optical limiters; however, such materials are difficult to prepare and have issues with stability. In this review, the origin of OPL as well as the mechanisms of OPL are discussed. Ways to modify CNTs to make them suitable for OPL applications is also discussed.