0D, 1D, and 2D boron nitride nanomaterials for countermeasures in the visible spectral range

Many metallic and carbon-based nanomaterials exhibit nonlinear optical response under intense laser radiation, what makes them promising for laser protection devices. They strongly attenuate intense laser light, while exhibiting high transmittance at low irradiation levels. This nonlinear optical phenomenon is called optical limiting. In recent years, boron nitride nanomaterials have attracted increasing attention due to their unique properties such as high temperature stability and high thermal conductivity. They are structurally analogous to carbon nanomaterials and can also be generated as zero-dimensional nanoparticles and fullerenes, one-dimensional nanotubes and nanoribbons and two-dimensional nanosheets or platelets. In contrast to carbon-based nanomaterials, which have been extensively studied during recent years, the nonlinear optical properties of boron nitride nanomaterials have hardly been analysed so far. In this work, we present a comparative study on the nonlinear optical response of dispersed boron nitride nanotubes, boron nitride nanoplatelets, boron nitride nanoparticles and multi-walled carbon nanotubes using nanosecond laser pulses at 532 nm. Our measurements revealed that nonlinear scattering dominates the optical limiting performance of all measured boron nitride nanomaterials. Boron nitride nanotubes are a very good candidate for laser protection applications, they show a large optical limiting effect, much stronger than multi-walled carbon nanotubes.