Nonlinear optical properties of lead nanocrystals embedding glass induced by thermal treatment and femtosecond laser irradiation

We fabricated lead nanocrystals inside a specially designed borosilicate glass by two parallel approaches, thermal stimulation and femtosecond laser irradiation. Thermal treatment can precipitate lead nanocrystals inside whole glass, while femtosecond laser irradiation can induce lead nanocrystals within selective area of glass. The fabricated nanocomposite exhibits large third-order optical nonlinearity and ultrafast response time, which is suitable for fabrication of ultrafast optical switches. Furthermore, the femtosecond laser induced refractive index difference between lead crystalline and glass is about 0.13, which is enough to fabricate optical devices such as photonic crystals.