title: Thermo-optical properties and nonlinear optical response of smectic liquid crystals containing gold nanoparticles.
abstract: The present work is devoted to the study of the thermo-optical and nonlinear optical properties of smectic samples containing gold nanoparticles with different shapes. By using the time-resolved Z-scan technique, we determine the effects of nanoparticle addition on the critical behavior of the thermal diffusivity and thermo-optical coefficient at the vicinity of the smectic-A-nematic phase transition. Our results reveal that introduction of gold nanoparticles affects the temperature dependence of thermo-optical parameters, due to the local distortions in the orientational order and heat generation provided by guest particles during the laser exposure. Further, we show that a nonlinear optical response may take place at temperatures where the smectic order is well established. We provide a detailed discussion of the effects associated with the introduction gold nanoparticles on the mechanisms behind the thermal transport and optical nonlinearity in liquid-crystal samples.
authors.affiliation: Instituto de Física, Universidade Federal de Alagoas 57072-970 Maceió-AL, Brazil.
authors.forename: P B
authors.initials: PB
authors.lastname: de Melo
authors.affiliation: Instituto de Química e Biotecnologia, Universidade Federal de Alagoas 57072-970 Maceió-AL, Brazil.
authors.forename: A M
authors.initials: AM
authors.lastname: Nunes
authors.affiliation: Instituto de Física, Universidade Federal de Alagoas 57072-970 Maceió-AL, Brazil.
authors.forename: L
authors.initials: L
authors.lastname: Omena
authors.affiliation: Instituto de Física, Universidade Federal de Alagoas 57072-970 Maceió-AL, Brazil.
authors.forename: S M S
authors.initials: SM
authors.lastname: do Nascimento
authors.affiliation: Instituto de Química e Biotecnologia, Universidade Federal de Alagoas 57072-970 Maceió-AL, Brazil.
authors.forename: M G A
authors.initials: MG
authors.lastname: da Silva
authors.affiliation: Instituto de Química e Biotecnologia, Universidade Federal de Alagoas 57072-970 Maceió-AL, Brazil.
authors.forename: M R
authors.initials: MR
authors.lastname: Meneghetti
authors.affiliation: Instituto de Física, Universidade Federal de Alagoas 57072-970 Maceió-AL, Brazil.
authors.forename: I N
authors.initials: IN
authors.lastname: de Oliveira
mesh_terms: D006046:Gold / Q000737:chemistry*; D050866:Liquid Crystals / Q000737:chemistry*; D053768:Metal Nanoparticles / Q000737:chemistry*; D017711:Nonlinear Dynamics; D055620:Optical Phenomena; D044367:Phase Transition; D013696:Temperature
chemical_list: D006046:Gold