Open AccessSurface plasmon assisted optical nonlinearities of uniformly oriented metal nano-ellipsoids in glass
Author(s) -
S. Mohan,
Jens Lange,
H. Graener,
G. Seifert
Publication year - 2012
Publication title -
optics express
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 1.394
H-Index - 271
ISSN - 1094-4087
DOI - 10.1364/oe.20.028655
Subject(s) - materials science , optics , surface plasmon resonance , surface plasmon , polarization (electrochemistry) , electric field , surface plasmon polariton , plasmon , femtosecond , localized surface plasmon , optical force , nonlinear optics , nanophotonics , nanoparticle , optoelectronics , physics , laser , optical tweezers , nanotechnology , chemistry , quantum mechanics
The nonlinear optical properties of nanocomposites consisting of non-spherical silver nanoparticles in glass matrix have been studied using the femtosecond Z-scan technique. The spheroidal nanoparticles were uniformly oriented along a common direction. By polarization sensitive studies, longitudinal and transverse plasmon resonances can be addressed separately. A sign reversal in optical nonlinearity from negative to positive is observed while switching the light interaction from near to non-resonant regime, which can be done by simply rotating the light polarization by 90°. Studying samples with different aspect ratio, we obtained the dispersion of third-order nonlinearity in the near-resonant regime, showing an enhancement of the nonlinear processes by more than two orders of magnitude due to the electric field enhancement at the surface plasmon resonance.