Photoluminescence and nonlinear optical phenomena in plasmonic random media—A review of recent works

Abstract

a b s t r a c tPhotoluminescence properties and nonlinear optical response of metal-dielectric nanocomposites (MDNCs)-germanate glasses, bio-cellulose membranes and colloids containing either silver (Ag) or gold (Au) nanoparticles (NPs)-are reviewed. The phenomena discussed are: i. the photoluminescence enhancement observed from rare-earth doped PbO-GeO 2 glass containing Ag NPs; ii. optical amplification at 1530 nm in RIB waveguides made with PbO-GeO 2 thin films covered with Au NPs; iii. Random Laser emission from a bio-cellulose membrane infiltrated with Rhodamine 6G and containing Ag NPs; iv. the nonlinearity management of high-order processes in colloids containing Ag NPs suspended in acetone. In all discussed cases the influence of the metallic NPs is clearly demonstrated and a procedure to control the nonlinear propagation of light beams in heterogeneous media is presented.

Nonlinear optical properties of metal nanoparticles: a review

“…Due to their large third-order nonlinear optical properties caused by surface plasmon resonance and the quantum size effect, noble metallic nanostructures embedded on a transparent dielectric matrix have been attracting signicant attention 59,60 as promising materials for all-optical signal processing devices. 61,62 Consequently, a few technologies have been developed such as laser ablation, 63,64 chemical synthesis, ion implantation, 65-67 and sol-gel methods. The quantum size effect will make the material show a more excellent performance, different from that of other noble metallic NPs, and silver NPs experience a lower intrinsic loss of plasmonic energy at visible frequencies that gives rise to SPR.…”

High-order optical nonlinearities in plasmonic nanocomposites—a review

“…Many publications related to the basic characteristics of metal nanocolloids and solidstate metal composites appeared in the past years [65][66][67][68][69][70][71][72][73][74][75][76][77][78]. In the majority of the experiments the authors focused on the third-order properties of the materials.…”