Thin films of nanostructured gallium (III) chloride phthalocyanine deposited on FTO: Structural characterization, optical properties, and laser optical limiting

Abstract Phthalocyanines are widely used in different fields of science, especially photodynamic therapy and solar cells. Gallium-phthalocyanine-chloride (PcGaCl) film has been deposited onto conductive Fluorine-doped tin oxide (FTO) substrates. The structural properties have been investigated using X-rays diffraction, which showed that PcGaCl films have an amorphous structure. The atomic force microscopy showed that surface morphology of PcGaCl films have high values of the roughness of 74–83 nm and average grain size of 86–130 nm. Both linear and nonlinear optical properties of nanostructured PcGaCl films with different thicknesses have been studied and explained based on the morphology investigation. The refractive and absorption indices of the films are calculated, and they depend on film material thickness. The high nonlinear optical values, as well as high laser optical limiting of nanostructured PcGaCl film deposited on FTO, indicated that it could be a candidate for various nonlinear optical applications such as laser filter.