Abstract

Structures possessing a periodically modulated index of refraction with a pitch comparable to the wavelength of light are called photonic band gap materials. Light waves interact within these in a manner analogous to that of electrons within semiconductor crystals. Recently¹, two-dimensional photonic bandgap behavior was demonstrated in the visible using nanochannel glass. In the present study, an effective limiter for the visible is realized by incorporating a thermal nonlinear liquid, consisting of an absorbing dye, nigrosin, dissolved in a solution of ethanol and toluene contained within the nanochannel capillaries². We observe nonlinearly induced transmissions of less than 0.003, a significantly better value than obtained using either a defocusing or a hybrid incoherent scattering/defocusing geometry with comparable nonlinearity.

© 1998 IEEE