Nonlinear optical responses, surface plasmon

Collective optical excitations, like surface plasmon-polaritons in partially-ordered metal nanoparticle arrays, tend to be spatially localized. The localization facilitates a giant increase of linear and nonlinear optical responses such as Raman scattering, enhancement of spontaneous emission rate, nonlinear absorption and refraction. In this paper the spectral manifestation of light localization into metal-dielectric nanocomposites i s s tudied i n t he visible. T he e ffect o f t he 1 ateral e lectrodynamic coupling on transmission/reflection optical spectra is investigated for planar silver nanoparticle arrays (random close-packed and polycrystalline quasiregular structures). Combined action of electron and photon confinements is demonstrated experimentally and considered theoretically for ID-photonic crystals consisted of a metal nanoparticle stratified array. 

For centuries, metal nanoparticles have never ceased to attract scientists and artists from many diverse cultures. In this section we briefly introduce a phenomenon of metal nanoparticles that still inspires scientists localized surface plasmon resonance (LSPR) (Hutter and Fendler, 2004). Metal nanoparticles show nonlinear electronic transport (single-electron transport of Coulomb blockade) and nonlinear/ultrafast optical response due to the SPR. Conduction electrons (—) and ionic cores (-F) in a metal form a plasma state. When external electric fields (i.e., electromagnetic waves, electron beams etc.) are applied to a metal, electrons move so as to screen perturbed charge distribution, move beyond the neutral states, return to the neutral states, and so on. This collective motion of electrons is called a plasma oscillation. SPR is a collective excitation mode of the plasma localized near the surface. Electrons confined in a nanoparticle conform the LSPR mode. The resonance frequency of the surface plasmon is different... 

The third-order optical nonlinearity of the conjugated polymers is based on the electron delocalization, which makes the electron cloud easily polarizable. Because of this nonresonant origin, the nonlinearity is very fast with subpicosecond response times [120]. Fukaya etal [121] have measured the intensity-dependent index of refraction of P30T using a surface plasmon resonance method. TTie result was nj = 5-10 i m /W at the wavelength 1.06 Xm, which is of the same order of magnitude as the values obtained for polydiacetylenes. 

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