Plasmon resonance enhanced large third-order optical nonlinearity and ultrafast optical response in Au nanobipyramids

The third-order optical nonlinearity and response time of Au nanobipyramids have been investigated by using optical Kerr effect technique. Large third-order nonlinear optical susceptibility (chi((3))) and ultrafast optical response time have been obtained at the longitudinal surface plasmon resonance (LSPR) wavelength. As the excitation laser wavelength varies from non-resonance wavelength of 780 nm to the LSPR wavelength of 825 nm, chi((3)) increases from 7.4 x 10(-14) to 3.9 x 10(-13) esu, the fast component of the response time decreases from 141 +/- 23 to 83 +/- 8 fs and the ratio of the fast component remains around 48%, while the slow response time decreases from 3200 +/- 200 to 2310 +/- 158 fs. The large enhancement of chi((3)) is due to the large local field enhancement caused by the surface plasmon resonance, and the shortening of the response times are induced by the increased probability of the electron-electron and electron-phonon scatterings in the nanosystem. This significant ultrafast optical property in Au nanobipyramids has great application in future ultrafast information processors. (C) 2014 AIP Publishing LLC.