Experimental study of the effective indexes of refraction of ethyl red in ethanol solution as a nonlinear optical material

With the Z-scan method, the nonlinear optical properties of the sample of Ethyl red (ER) in ethanol solution (in which the content of ER is 1% by weight) were measured using the lasers of three wavelengths (441.6nm, 535nm and 633nm) respectively. As a result, the effective indexes of refraction n2 of ER at the three wavelengths are in the range from 1.35x10-10 to 5.44x10-9m2/W; n2 at 535nm is the maximal and about 30 times that at 633nm. The results show that the ER has a potential application value in optical limiting or in the field of fast response.