Dipole plasmon resonance induced large third-order optical nonlinearity of Au triangular nanoprism in infrared region

Au triangular nanoprisms with strong dipole plasmon absorption peak at 1240 nm were prepared by wet chemical methods. Both numerical calculations and experiments were carried out to investigate the optical properties of the samples. Finite difference time domain (FDTD) and Local Density of States (LDOS) calculations demonstrate that strong electric field enhancement and large LDOS can be obtained at tip areas of the Au triangular nanoprisms. Z scan techniques were used to characterize the nonlinear absorption, nonlinear refraction, as well as one- and two-photon figures of merit (W and T, respectively) of the sample. The results show that maximum nonlinear refractive index can be obtained around the resonance absorption wavelength of 1240 nm, detuning the wavelength from the absorption peak will lead to the decrease of the nonlinear refractive index n(2), while the nonlinear absorption coefficient beta doesn't change much with the wavelength. This large wavelength dependence of n2 and small change of beta enable the sample to satisfy the all-optical switching demand of W> 1 and T< 1 easily in a large wavelength range of 1200-1300 nm. These significant nonlinear properties of the sample imply that Au triangular nanoprism is a good candidate for future optical switches in infrared optical communication wavelength region. (C) 2013 Optical Society of America