Surface-plasmon enhanced ultrafast third-order optical nonlinearities in ellipsoidal gold nanoparticles embedded bismuthate glasses

Ellipsoidal gold nanoparticles embedded bismuthate glasses have been prepared via a facile melt-annealing approach. Femtosecond Z-scan measurement shows that the nanocomposites exhibit a maximum third-order nonlinear susceptibility χ(3) of 4.88 × 10−10 esu at 800 nm, which is two orders higher than that of the host glass. Optical Kerr shutter measurement demonstrates ultrafast response time (in scale of sub-picosecond) of the intraband transition enhanced third-order nonlinearities.