title: Numerical study of surface plasmon enhanced nonlinear absorption and refraction.
abstract: Maxwell Garnett effective medium theory is used to study the influence of silver nanoparticle induced field enhancement on the nonlinear response of a Kerr-type nonlinear host. We show that the composite nonlinear absorption coefficient, beta(c), can be enhanced relative to the host nonlinear absorption coefficient near the surface plasmon resonance of silver nanoparticles. This enhancement is not due to a resonant enhancement of the host nonlinear absorption, but rather due to a phase shifted enhancement of the host nonlinear refractive response. The enhancement occurs at the expense of introducing linear absorption, alpha(c), which leads to an overall reduced figure of merit beta(c)/alpha(c) for nonlinear absorption. For thin (< 1 microm) composites, the use of surface plasmons is found to result in an increased nonlinear absorption response compared to that of the host material.
authors.affiliation: CREOL and FPCE: The College of Optics and Photonics, University of Central Florida, Orlando, FL 32816, USA. kohlgraf@creol.ucf.edu
authors.forename: Dana C
authors.initials: DC
authors.lastname: Kohlgraf-Owens
authors.forename: Pieter G
authors.initials: PG
authors.lastname: Kik
mesh_terms: D000042:Absorption; D000465:Algorithms; D004867:Equipment Design; D008422:Materials Testing; D053768:Metal Nanoparticles / Q000737:chemistry; D008962:Models, Theoretical; D053758:Nanoparticles; D049329:Nanostructures; D055095:Optics and Photonics; D012031:Refractometry / Q000295:instrumentation / Q000379:methods; D012834:Silver / Q000737:chemistry; D020349:Surface Plasmon Resonance / Q000295:instrumentation* / Q000379:methods
chemical_list: D012834:Silver