Published online by Cambridge University Press: 19 April 2011
Bi1.95La1.05TiNbO9 (BLTN-1.05) thin films were prepared on fused quartz substrates by pulsed laser deposition. The x-ray diffraction (XRD) analysis and atomic force microscope (AFM) surface morphology measurements were performed on the samples. The XRD pattern demonstrated that the films are single-phase perovskite structured and well crystallized. The AFM analysis indicated that the films have less rough surface. The fundamental optical constants were obtained through optical transmittance measurements. The nonlinear optical properties of BLTN thin films were measured by a single beam Z-scan technique under 1064 nm excitation. The real and imaginary parts of the third-order nonlinear optical susceptibility χ(3) of the film were measured to be 9.56 × 10−9 and −3.67 × 10−9 esu, respectively. The Z-scan results show that BLTN thin films have potential applications in nonlinear optics.