Linear/nonlinear optical properties of functional inorganic MgO nano-filler in PVA transparent polymer for flexible optoelectronic devices

Structural features of different PVA/MgO nanocomposite films, where 0 <= MgO wt% <= 5, using XRD and Raman spectra were correlated with their linear/nonlinear optical properties. The XRD spectra revealed a decrease in the crystallinity of the PVA semi-crystalline polymer with the addition of 1 wt% of MgO nano-filler in the host polymer along with an increase with further increase of the MgO nano-filler concentration. The Raman spectra along with the calculated increase in the width of localized states Ee within the optical energy gap with increasing MgO wt% suggested formation of new structural disorders, defects and impurities at the internal grain boundaries between the dispersed MgO nano-filler and the PVA matrix. The linear/nonlinear optical properties of different PVA/MgO nanocomposites films such as energy gap, linear/nonlinear refractive index, optical conductivity, the third order susceptibility, dispersion energy, and other optoelectronic parameters were eval-uated using UV/Vis/NIR spectrophotometer. All the calculated optical parameters were found to be MgO wt% dependent and revealed a guide for tuning the optical properties of PVA films using MgO nano-filler for usage in flexible optoelectronic applications.