Influence of annealing on the linear and nonlinear optical properties of Mn doped ZnO thin films examined by z-scan technique in CW regime

We present the studies on the influence of annealing on the third-order nonlinear optical properties of RF magnetron sputtered manganese doped zinc oxide (MZO) thin films with different doping concentration. It is revealed that the incorporation of Mn into ZnO and annealing lead to prominent changes in the third order nonlinearity. Nonlinear optical measurements were carried out by employing the z-scan technique using a continuous wave (CW) He-Ne laser of 633 nm. The z-scan results reveal that the films exhibit self-defocusing thermal nonlinearity. The third-order nonlinear optical susceptibility χ⁽³⁾ was found to be of the order of 10^-3 esu and 10^-2 esu for annealed MZO thin films at 200 °C and 400 °C respectively. The dependence of grain size on the observed nonlinearity was revealed by atomic force microscopy analysis. Optical limiting studies were carried out for a range of input power levels and an optical limiting of about ∼8 mW was observed indicating the possible application for photonic devices.