Materials Today Communications, cilt.44, 2025 (SCI-Expanded)
Optical limiters are crucial for protecting optoelectronic devices and human eyes from harmful intense laser radiation. Herein, the nonlinear absorption (NA) and optical limiting (OL) properties of electrospun polyvinylprolidone (PVP) nanofibers filled with transition metal vanadate (TMV: Cu3V2O8, Mn2V2O7, FeVO4) nanoparticles were investigated. Microstructural analyses revealed a homogeneous cylindrical structure for the fabricated composite nanofibers. Filling PVP nanofibers with different TMVs altered their energy band gap. In addition, TMV filling decreased the diameter of the nanofibers and increased the number of defect states in their structure. Nonlinear absorption coefficient values of the nanofibers with Mn2V2O7 was found to be larger than that of other composite nanofibers. Analysis of the charge transfer states within the band gap showed that the NA behavior of the Cu3V2O8 and FeVO4 nanoparticle-filled PVP composite nanofibers was strongly affected by two-photon absorption (TPA) and excited state absorption (ESA). In contrast, the stronger contribution to nonlinear absorption came from one-photon absorption (OPA), TPA, and ESA in the case of Mn2V2O7 nanoparticle-filled PVP composite nanofibers. The smallest onset optical limiting threshold value among the TMV/PVP composite nanofibers was 1.46 × 10−4 J/cm², observed in Mn2V2O7 nanoparticle-filled PVP composite nanofibers. Notably, the PVP/Mn2V2O7 composite nanofibers exhibited a lower onset limiting threshold and can be used as an effective optical limiter at 532 nm compared to most reported composite nanofibers.