Structural, linear and third order nonlinear optical properties of drop casting deposited high quality nanocrystalline phenol red thin films

The present work is focused on the fabrication of high quality Phenol red dye thin films of three different thicknesses using low cost route for the first time. The thickness of the fabricated films was measured by thickness monitor and found to be 50, 84 and 91 nm. The powder X-ray diffraction reveals the amorphous nature of the film due to very fine layer of the deposited films. SEM and AFM studies were carried out on the deposited films and confirms their high quality with nanocrystalline morphology. To study the optical characteristics of the deposited thin films, UV–Vis–NIR absorbance, transmittance and reflectance spectra measurements were carried out. The variation in the value of energy gap, refractive index, optical, dielectric constant was observed with thickness. The nonlinear optical constants such as: χ1,χ3andn2 were found to vary with thicknesses of the films, which are in the range of 0.3–1.8, 0.0089 × 10^{− 9}–1.55 × 10^{− 9} esu and 0.003 × 10^{− 8}–1.22 × 10^{− 8} esu. Results suggest that it may be a good contender to be used in optoelectronic applications.