Optical nonlinearities of silicate oxide glass with gold nanoparticles outside the spectral range of surface plasmon resonance

The Z-scan technique, with the use of femtosecond laser pulses at 813 nm and of 1 kHz repetition rate, was applied for measurement of the nonlinear optical properties of silicate glass with embedded gold nanoparticles, produced by the standard melt-quenching method and then annealed at 550 degrees C. At irradiance levels of 10(12) W m- 2 it exhibited two-photon absorption with beta = 3.8 x 10(-15) m W-1 and positive Kerr lensing effect with n(2) = 1.85 x 10(-20) m(2) W-1 which resulted in the nonlinear susceptibility chi((3)) = (0.031 + 2.366 i) x 10(-14) esu. These values, although remarkably low, indicate that the nonlinear refraction effects significantly dominate the nonlinear absorption and when appropriately increasing the doping with Au nanoparticles, this nanocomposite glass can be considered for the optical switching applications outside the spectral range of the surface plasmon resonance.

Automated summary

The Z-scan technique was used to measure the nonlinear optical properties of silicate glass embedded with gold nanoparticles, showing that nonlinear refraction effects dominate over nonlinear absorption.