Quadratic Electro-Optic Effect in Metal Nanoparticles in a Transparent Dielectric Medium

Mrinal Thakur,Justin Van Cleave

doi:10.3390/app9020232

Abstract

The quadratic electro-optic effect/Kerr coefficients were measured for the first time for metal nanoparticles. In particular, gold nanoparticles in glass were studied. Measurements were made using the field-induced birefringence method at a wavelength near the onset of the surface plasmon resonance. The magnitudes of the Kerr coefficients for different sizes of gold nanoparticles in glass were measured and compared with that of subnanometer size metallic particles in non-conjugated conductive polymers. The magnitude of the Kerr coefficient was found to increase rapidly (about d−3) when the diameter, d, of the nanoparticles was decreased. This is consistent with the existing theories and understanding of nonlinear optics in metal nanoparticles. The results imply a broad range of new applications of metal nanoparticles in electro-optic switching/modulation, low-cost Kerr cells and other uses in optoelectronics.

Highlights

Nonlinear optics in metal nanoparticles within transparent dielectric media has been studied extensively [1,2,3,4,5,6,7,8,9,10,11,12]
Kerr effect with ultrashort optical pulses is that thermal contribution is expected to be extremely small electrical current and, lead to minimal thermal effects. These minimal in the may quadratic electro-optic measurements. This is because with the metal nanoparticles glass measurements provide evidence of a correlation of nonlinearity particle size, while in such a are insulators that allow no detectable or only an extremely small electrical current and, lead correlation could be obscured by thermal effects in the other nonlinear optical measurements to minimal thermal effects
The size of the gold nanoparticle was estimated purchased from a commercial vendor

Summary

Introduction

Nonlinear optics in metal nanoparticles within transparent dielectric media has been studied extensively [1,2,3,4,5,6,7,8,9,10,11,12]. These minimal in the may quadratic electro-optic measurements This is because with the metal nanoparticles glass measurements provide evidence of a correlation of nonlinearity particle size, while in such a are insulators that allow no detectable or only an extremely small electrical current and, lead correlation could be obscured by thermal effects in the other nonlinear optical measurements to minimal thermal effects. These measurements may provide evidence of a correlation of involving intense laser pulses. Glass samples (dimensions of about 4 cm × 4 cm × 3 mm) containing gold nanoparticles of

Experimental

Results and Discussion

Surface plasmon resonance gold nanoparticles in glass

Conclusions