Measurement of the third-order nonlinear susceptibility of Ag nanoparticles in glass in a wide spectral range

Faccio, D. , Trapani, P. d., Borsella, E., Gonella, F., Mazzoldi, P. and Malvezzi, A.M. (1998) Measurement of the third-order nonlinear susceptibility of Ag nanoparticles in glass in a wide spectral range. Europhysics Letters (EPL), 43(2), pp. 213-218. (doi: 10.1209/epl/i1998-00342-y)

Abstract

We determined the third-order susceptibility |χ(3)| of a thin composite film formed by silver nanoclusters embedded in soda-lime glass. Ag aggregation was promoted by irradiating an Ag-Na ion-exchanged glass with an N+ beam. |χ(3)| dispersion was measured by phase-mismatched degenerate four-wave mixing in the 380–470 nm spectral range, with 0.5 ps laser pulse duration. Close to the surface plasmon resonance of Ag metallic clusters, the χ(3) amplitude exceeds by a factor of 104 the value of substrate glass. We also measured a phase of 83° and a dynamics characterized by ~ 30, 3 and 0.9 ps decay times, ascribed to hot-electrons-lattice thermalization in the clusters, followed by thermal diffusion toward the matrix and relaxation of the whole system to the starting temperature.

• Item Type: Articles
• Status: Published
• Refereed: Yes
• Glasgow Author(s) Enlighten ID: Faccio, Professor Daniele
• Authors: Faccio, D., Trapani, P. d., Borsella, E., Gonella, F., Mazzoldi, P., and Malvezzi, A.M.
• College/School: College of Science and Engineering > School of Physics and Astronomy
• Journal Name: Europhysics Letters (EPL)
• Publisher: IOP Publishing
• ISSN: 0295-5075
• ISSN (Online): 1286-4854