Optical property of gold nanoparticle embedded chalcogenide glasses

Gold nanoparticles (Au-NPs) were prepared within bulk Ge-Sn-Se chalcogenide glass (ChG) by the thermal treatment method. In the ChG matrix, growth of the Au-NPs with optical activity gives rise to a threshold behavior of optical bandgap of the ChG. By using Z-scan and optical parametric amplify techniques, improved mid-infrared third-order optical nonlinearity, namely larger nonlinear refraction without multi-photon absorption, was observed in the nanocomposites at a mid-infrared wavelength of 3 mu m. (C) 2018 Optical Society of America under the terms of the OSA Open Access Publishing Agreement