Nanooptics and photonics

Holographic recording on composites of smectic glass and core/shell nanoparticles
Bordyuh H.1, Gridyakina А.1, Fedorenko D.2, Kravchuk M.2, Klimusheva G. 2, Myrna T.3
aNational Aviation University, Prosp. Komarova 1, Kyiv-03058, Ukraine
E-mail: a.bordyuh@gmail.com
bInstitute of Physics, NASU, ave. Nauki 46, Kiev-03680, Ukraine
cV.I.Vernadskiy Institute of General and Inorganic Chemistry, NASU, Acad. Palladina Ave.,32-34, Kiev-03142, Ukraine

Recently it was shown that doping glass-forming liquid crystals with nano-sized particles made of semiconductor, metal or core/shell drastically changes optical properties of the matrix and even renders it optical nonlinearity [1]. In this work we proceed with studying nonlinear optical properties of composite materials consisting of glassy cadmium octanoate (CdC8) and noble metal (Ag) or hybrid core/shell nanoparticles (Ag/ZnSe, Ag/ZnS, Ag/CdS, and Ag/PbS).
We applied methods of dynamic holography using two-beam scheme to record diffraction gratings, which were induced by the action of nanosecond laser pulses at the wavelength of 539.8 nm. Besides the values of diffraction efficiency (η) for the recorded gratings we obtained main nonlinear characteristics of the studied samples including nonlinear refraction coefficient (n2) and third-order nonlinear susceptibility (χ(3)). Also we compared nonlinear optical properties achieved in different experimental conditions, namely with different converging lenses and different material of cells containing samples (glass and quartz).
According to our experimental data, the best results with significant improvement over pure metal additives were obtained with core/shell nanoparticles (core of noble metal, varying semiconductor shells) introduced into cadmium octanoate matrix. These samples showed great values of diffraction efficiency (η ~ 10%), as well as nonlinear parameters, n2 ~ 10-10 cm2/W and χ(3) ~ 10-8 esu, which are close to the best characteristics of known metal-based nonlinear materials [2].

[1] Rudenko V., Tolochko A., Zhulai D., Klimusheva G., Mirnaya T., Yaremchuk G., Asaula V. Nonlinear optical properties of metal alkanoate composites with hybrid core/shell nanoparticles // Applied Nanoscience.-2018.-P. 1-7.
[2] Robert W. Boyd, Zhimin Shi, Israel De Leon The third-order nonlinear optical susceptibility of gold // Optics Communications.-2014.-326.-P. 74-79.