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Saturable and reverse saturable absorption in aqueous silver nanoparticles at off-resonant wavelength

Optical and Quantum Electronics volume 43, pages 49–58 (2012)Cite this article

Abstract

Silver nano-colloid was prepared by chemical reduction method and its nonlinear absorption properties were investigated by using open aperture z-scan experiment with nanosecond laser pulses operating at 532 nm. Interestingly, a switch over from saturable absorption to reverse saturable absorption was observed when the input intensity is increased from 28.1 to 175.8 MW/cm2. The underlying mechanism responsible for the observed switching behaviour is the interplay between ground state plasmon band bleaching and excited state absorption. Theoretical fitting was done by using a model in which nonlinear absorption coefficient as well as saturation intensity are incorporated.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. International School of Photonics, Cochin University of Science and Technology, Cochin-22, India

    Misha Hari, S. Mathew, B. Nithyaja, Santhi Ani Joseph, V. P. N. Nampoori & P. Radhakrishnan

  2. CELOS, Cochin University of Science and Technology, Cochin-22, India

    S. Mathew & P. Radhakrishnan

Authors
  1. Misha Hari
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  2. S. Mathew
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  3. B. Nithyaja
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  4. Santhi Ani Joseph
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  5. V. P. N. Nampoori
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  6. P. Radhakrishnan
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Correspondence to Misha Hari.

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Hari, M., Mathew, S., Nithyaja, B. et al. Saturable and reverse saturable absorption in aqueous silver nanoparticles at off-resonant wavelength. Opt Quant Electron 43, 49–58 (2012). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11082-011-9502-7

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s11082-011-9502-7

Keywords

  • Silver nanocolloid
  • Surface plasmon resonance
  • Z-scan
  • Third order optical nonlinearity
  • Saturable absorption
  • Reverse saturable absorption
  • Two-photon absorption