Anisotropic linear and nonlinear optical properties from anisotropy-controlled metallic nanocomposites.
High-energy metallic ions were implanted in silica matrices, obtaining spherical-like metallic nanoparticles (NPs) after a proper thermal treatment. These NPs were then deformed by irradiation with Si ions, obtaining an anisotropic metallic nanocomposite. An average large birefringence of 0.06 was measured for these materials in the 300-800 nm region. Besides, their third order nonlinear optical response was measured using self-diffraction and P-scan techniques at 532 nm with 26 ps pulses. By adjusting the incident light's polarization and the angular position of the nanocomposite, the measurements could be directly related to, at least, two of the three linear independent components of its third order susceptibility tensor, finding a large, but anisotropic, response of around 10(-7) esu with respect to other isotropic metallic systems. For the nonlinear optical absorption, we were able to shift from saturable to reverse saturable absorption depending on probing the Au NP's major or minor axes, respectively. This fact could be related to local field calculations and NP's electronic properties. For the nonlinear optical refraction, we passed from self-focusing to self-defocusing, when changing from Ag to Au.
Reyes-Esqueda
Jorge Alejandro
JA
Instituto de Física, Universidad Nacional Autónoma de México, México, D. F. 04510. reyes@fisica.unam.mx
Rodríguez-Iglesias
Vladimir
V
Silva-Pereyra
Héctor-Gabriel
HG
Torres-Torres
Carlos
C
Santiago-Ramírez
Ana-Laura
AL
Cheang-Wong
Juan Carlos
JC
Crespo-Sosa
Alejandro
A
Rodríguez-Fernández
Luis
L
López-Suárez
Alejandra
A
Oliver
Alicia
A
D000465:Algorithms; D016880:Anisotropy; D004867:Equipment Design; D008027:Light; D053768:Metal Nanoparticles / Q000737:chemistry*; D008670:Metals / Q000737:chemistry; D015233:Models, Statistical; D008962:Models, Theoretical; D053761:Nanocomposites / Q000737:chemistry*; D055095:Optics and Photonics
D008670:Metals