Nonlinear optical properties of metallic, semiconducting and
organic nanomaterials
I. Papagiannouli
Department of Physics, University of Patras, Greece
Institute of Chemical Engineering Sciences, Foundation for Research and Technology-Hellas
Due to the recent advances in nanotechnology there is an increasing demand for
nanomaterials with potential applicability in photonics and optoelectronics. During the
last decades, metallic nanoparticles have attracted considerable attention due to their
extremely large and fast nonlinear optical (NLO) response, when irradiated with laser
pulses. The origin of the large NLO response of the se nanostructures lie in the surface
plasmon resonance (SPR), which is capable of inducing an enhancement up to several
orders of magnitude, compared to the corresponding bulk materials. On the other hand,
the scientific interest has been also focused lately on the semiconducting and organic
nanomaterials, with particular emphasis on their high optical limiting efficiency.
In this respect, the NLO properties of gold and silver nanoparticles and their alloys, as
well as a series of palladium-based nanohybrids will be presented [1,2]. The
investigation was carried out in terms of the nanoparticle size, the polymeric
environment and the metallic content, while in all cases the influence of the SPR on the
optical nonlinearity was the main objective of this research. In addition, the NLO
response of another class of materials, i.e., the low-dimensional lead iodide perovskites
will be discussed, where instead of the SPR, now the exciton can resonantly enhance
the NLO response to a gigantic extent [3]. Finally, the NLO properties and the optical
limiting action of some carbon-based nanomaterials, such as nano-sized diamonds and
carbon dots will be presented, with the sp2/sp3 ratio and the surface functionalization
playing a catalytic role to the observed differences between their NLO behavior [4-6].
References :
[1] “Palladium-based micellar nanohybrids: preparation and nonlinear optical response”, I.
Papagiannouli et al., RSC Advances, 4, 8779-8788, 2014.
[2] “Palladium micellar nanohybrids with tunable nonlinear optical response”, I.
Papagiannouli et al., Opt. Materials, 36, 123-129, 2013.
[3] “Synthesis and characterization of the nonlinear optical properties of novel hybrid organic
inorganic semiconductor lead iodide quantum wells and dots”, I. Papagiannouli et al., J. Phys.
Chem. C, 118, 2766-2775, 2014.
[4] “Synthesis, characterization and non-linear optical response of organophilic carbon dots”,
A. B. Bourlinos et al., Carbon, 61, 640-643, 2013.
[5] “Third-order nonlinear optical response and optical limiting of colloidal carbon dots”, P.
Aloukos et al., Opt. Express, 22, 12013-12027, 2014.
[6] “Nonlinear optical properties of colloidal carbon nanoparticles: nanodiamonds and carbon
dots”, I. Papagiannouli et al., RSC Advances, 4, 40152-40160, 2014.