Photophysical and nonlinear optical properties of the positional isomers of 4-(4-tertbutylphenoxy) substituted cobalt, nickel and copper phthalocyanines

Abstract This paper reports on the third order nonlinear optical properties of cobalt, nickel and tetrakis(4-terbutylphenoxy)phthalocyaninatocopper(II) isomers, using the Z-scan technique. Metal-free isomers were found to have high nonlinear absorption coefficient (β) values compared to the metalated isomers. Metal-free C2v isomer was found to have the highest β value of 1.52 × 10−10 mMW−1 in THF. All the metal-free and metal phthalocyanine isomers nonlinear properties were found to be dependent on the singlet state absorption. Imaginary second order nonlinear hyperpolarizability ( I m [ γ ] ), ground state cross section (σg), excited states cross sections (σs and σt) and two photon absorption (TPA) cross section (σTPA) values are reported in this work. The five-energy level model rate equations were used to model the nonlinear response and absorption cross sections.