Open AccessGuiding and nonlinear coupling of light in plasmonic nanosuspensions
Author(s) -
Trevor S. Kelly,
Yu-Xuan Ren,
Akbar Samadi,
Anna Bezryadina,
Demetrios N. Christodoulides,
Zhigang Chen
Publication year - 2016
Publication title -
optics letters/optics index
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 1.524
H-Index - 272
eISSN - 1071-2763
pISSN - 0146-9592
DOI - 10.1364/ol.41.003817
Subject(s) - plasmon , materials science , optics , nanorod , colloidal gold , beam (structure) , nanoshell , wavelength , nonlinear optics , optoelectronics , coupling (piping) , dissipative system , self focusing , nonlinear system , infrared , nanoparticle , nanotechnology , physics , laser , laser beams , quantum mechanics , metallurgy
We demonstrate two different types of coupled beam propagation dynamics in colloidal gold nanosuspensions. In the first case, an infrared (IR) probe beam (1064 nm) is guided by a low-power visible beam (532 nm) in a gold nanosphere or in nanorod suspensions due to the formation of a plasmonic resonant soliton. Although the IR beam does not experience nonlinear self-action effects, even at high power levels, needle-like deep penetration of both beams through otherwise highly dissipative suspensions is realized. In the second case, a master/slave-type nonlinear coupling is observed in gold nanoshell suspensions, in which the nanoparticles have opposite polarizabilities at the visible and IR wavelengths. In this latter regime, both beams experience a self-focusing nonlinearity that can be fine-tuned.