The nonlinear optical properties of silver nanoparticles decorated glass obtained from sintering mesoporous powders

Abstract

ABSTRACTSilver nanoparticles (Ag NPs) have excellent third‐order nonlinear optical properties but it is still difficult to obtain silica glass containing Ag NPs with homogenous dispersion and small particle size. Herein, silica glass with homogenously distributed Ag NPs in its matrix was derived from sintering a famous type of mesoporous silica (FDU‐12) encapsulated with Ag NPs (Ag NPs/FDU‐12) through Spark Plasma Sintering (SPS) technique. Benefited from the low‐temperature sintering property of the Ag NPs/FDU‐12 powders (~930°C within 5 min), the Ag NPs can be directly trapped in the derived silica glass with small particle size (<3.0 nm) and without mass loss. The as‐prepared Ag NPs/glass showed a typical reverse saturable absorption curve, which is measured via the Z‐scan method by using a 532 nm nanosecond laser. The nonlinear coefficient and imaginary third‐order susceptibility were calculated as 11.46 cm/GW and 2.22 × 10−12 esu, respectively, indicating the excellent third‐order nonlinear optical properties of the Ag NPs/glass. This study demonstrates a great potential for preparing silica glasses functionalized with well dispersed ultrafine functional particles, which is appealing in photonic field.