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Tuning Ultrafast Photoresponse of Gold Nanorods

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Abstract

Nondegenerate pump probe differential transmission experiments on gold nanorods with varying longitudinal surface plasmon resonance have revealed a new phenomenon where the polarity of the transient transmission signal can be reversibly switched between photo bleaching and photo-induced absorption by controlling probe fluence. Under the usual case where probe fluences are nominal, photo bleaching effect is observed for the nanorods with longitudinal surface plasmon resonance energy smaller than the probe photon energy. The laser-induced melting of the nanorods or change in their shape is ruled out for the observed optical switching effect. A quantitative understanding of the results is attempted by invoking a cascaded two-photon absorption dominant beyond a threshold probe fluence of ∼75 μJ/cm2.

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Acknowledgments

We acknowledge financial assistance from the Department of Science and Technology, Government of India. We thank Prof. S. K. Kulkarni for discussion related to preparation of the gold nanorod samples.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Physics, Indian Institute of Science, Bangalore, 560012, India

    Sunil Kumar, M. Anija & A. K. Sood

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  1. Sunil Kumar
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  2. M. Anija
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  3. A. K. Sood
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Correspondence to A. K. Sood.

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Kumar, S., Anija, M. & Sood, A.K. Tuning Ultrafast Photoresponse of Gold Nanorods. Plasmonics 8, 1477–1483 (2013). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11468-013-9561-7

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s11468-013-9561-7

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