Optical limiter having trimetallic nitride endohedral metallofullerence films

• Main Authors: KLEMER DANIEL R, GAUSE CHARLES B, STEVENSON STEVEN A
• Format: Patent
• Language: English
• Published: 04.08.2009
• Subjects: ACYCLIC, CARBOCYCLIC OR HETEROCYCLIC COMPOUNDS CONTAININGELEMENTS OTHER THAN CARBON, HYDROGEN, HALOGEN, OXYGEN, NITROGEN,SULFUR, SELENIUM OR TELLURIUM; CHEMISTRY; DEVICES OR ARRANGEMENTS, THE OPTICAL OPERATION OF WHICH ISMODIFIED BY CHANGING THE OPTICAL PROPERTIES OF THE MEDIUM OF THEDEVICES OR ARRANGEMENTS FOR THE CONTROL OF THE INTENSITY,COLOUR, PHASE, POLARISATION OR DIRECTION OF LIGHT, e.g.SWITCHING, GATING, MODULATING OR DEMODULATING; DIAGNOSIS; FREQUENCY-CHANGING; HUMAN NECESSITIES; HYGIENE; IDENTIFICATION; MANUFACTURE OR TREATMENT OF NANOSTRUCTURES; MEASUREMENT OR ANALYSIS OF NANOSTRUCTURES; MEDICAL OR VETERINARY SCIENCE; METALLURGY; NANOTECHNOLOGY; NON-LINEAR OPTICS; OPTICAL ANALOGUE/DIGITAL CONVERTERS; OPTICAL LOGIC ELEMENTS; OPTICS; ORGANIC CHEMISTRY; PERFORMING OPERATIONS; PHYSICS; SPECIFIC USES OR APPLICATIONS OF NANOSTRUCTURES; SURGERY; TECHNIQUES OR PROCEDURES FOR THE OPERATION THEREOF; TRANSPORTING

An exemplary optical limiter device (100) has an optically transmissive substrate (102) and a layer (104) on a first surface (106) of the substrate, the layer having a trimetallic nitride endohedral metallofullerene. The layer can be a thin film of the trimetallic nitride endohedral metallofullerene, a layer material with a cavity containing a solution with the trimetallic nitride endohedral metallofullerene, a sol-gel with a trimetallic nitride endohedral metallofullerene, and a self assembled monolayer with a trimetallic nitride endohedral metallofullerene. The layers of trimetallic nitride endohedral metallofullerenes can be vapor deposited, solution deposited and/or self assembled onto optical components. The third-order nonlinear properties of these films provide desired transmission characteristics.