Third-order optical nonlinearity of the carbon nanotubes

Abstract
Third-order optical nonlinearity of the carbon nanotubes was investigated with both 30-ps-wide and 8-ns-wide Nd:YAG laser beams. Both 1064 and 532 nm were used in each case. The nonlinear optical temporal response was obtained both on the picosecond scale and on the nanosecond scale, and the corresponding mechanism is discussed. Finally, we have compared the average contribution of one carbon atom to the third-order optical nonlinearity in the carbon nanotubes with that in C60, finding some enhancement of the third-order optical nonlinearity in the carbon nanotubes.