Ultra-High Nonlinear Saturable Absorption Responses and Ultra-Fast Carrier Dynamics of Organic DAST

Third-order nonlinear optical (NLO) absorption properties and ultra-fast carrier dynamics of organic 4-N,N-dimethylamino-4'-N'-methyl-stilbazolium tosylate (DAST) at the wavelength of 520 nm are investigated by femtosecond open-aperture Z-scan technique and transient absorption spectroscopy, respectively. Z-scan measurements indicate that DAST solution exhibits ultra-high nonlinear saturable absorption (SA) responses with a figure of merit of 4.57 x 10(-13) esu cm and a saturation strength of 3.20 GW cm(-2), far superior to those of the most known 2D SA materials under similar excitations. Transient absorption results reveal that the outstanding SA performances of the solution-phase DAST are rooted in ultra-fast ground-state bleaching based on the Pauli blocking effect. The subsequent excited state carrier relaxation processes are dominated by rapid intraband carrier cooling and defect-assisted interband Auger recombination. Moreover, high-quality DAST-polyvinyl alcohol composite films prepared by solution casting exhibit similar ultra-high SA responses and reliable long-term stability without any degradation of their SA responses even after exposure to air moisture for 100 days. These findings establish an experimental and theoretical foundation for the development of high-performance ultra-fast optoelectronic devices based on organic NLO materials in the future.