Picosecond optical nonlinearity in monolayer-protected gold, silver, and gold-silver alloy nanoclusters

Reji Philip, G. Ravindra Kumar, N. Sandhyarani, and T. Pradeep
Phys. Rev. B 62, 13160 – Published 15 November 2000
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Abstract

Monolayer-protected Au, Ag, and Au:Ag alloy nanoclusters have been synthesized using octanethiol and octadecanethiol as capping agents. The particle-size distribution is narrow with an average core size of 3–4 nm. Optical nonlinearity induced by 35 ps pulses at 532 nm has been investigated in these samples using the Z-scan technique. It is found that in general, they behave either as saturable absorbers or reverse saturable absorbers depending on the intensity of excitation. Au and Ag clusters show nearly the same efficiency for optical limiting, but the alloy clusters are found to be less efficient in limiting and are less photostable. The observed effects are explained in terms of the electron dynamics of the excited-state species.

  • Received 20 December 1999

DOI:https://doi.org/10.1103/PhysRevB.62.13160

©2000 American Physical Society

Authors & Affiliations

Reji Philip* and G. Ravindra Kumar

  • Tata Institute of Fundamental Research, Homi Bhabha Road, Colaba, Bombay-400005, India

N. Sandhyarani and T. Pradeep

  • Department of Chemistry and Regional Sophisticated Instrumentation Centre, Indian Institute of Technology, Madras 600 036, India

  • *Present address: Raman Research Institute, Bangalore 560 080, India

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Vol. 62, Iss. 19 — 15 November 2000

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