The nonlinear optical modulation of a light beam (or Kerr effect) by a single gold metallic nanoparticle has been obtained by the P-Scan method. The 80 nm diameter gold nanoparticles were spread on a glass substrate and investigated with a tightly focused femtosecond laser beam at the fundamental wavelength of 840 nm for different incident intensities. The retro-reflected intensity was recorded in the far field at the same wavelength of 840 nm. Clear deviations from the linear regime were observed and attributed to both nonlinear refraction and nonlinear absorption of the gold nanoparticles. Besides, the second harmonic signal was also observed for these nanoparticles allowing for the display of the linear, quadratic and cubic susceptibility tensors χ⁽¹⁾, χ⁽²⁾ and χ⁽³⁾ of the same substrate where are dispersed gold nanoparticles.

Date Published: 10 September 2014
PDF: 5 pages
Proc. SPIE 9163, Plasmonics: Metallic Nanostructures and Their Optical Properties XII, 91633R (10 September 2014); doi: 10.1117/12.2074752

Published in SPIE Proceedings Vol. 9163:
Plasmonics: Metallic Nanostructures and Their Optical Properties XII
Allan D. Boardman, Editor(s)