Controlling the efficiency and polarization properties of nonlinear optical phenomena in plasmonic nanostructures

Controlling the efficiency and polarization properties of nonlinear optical phenomena in plasmonic nanostructures

Il 23/09/2016 ore 10.30 – 13.00
Sala A. Barone, CNR-ISASI, via Campi Flegrei 34 Pozzuoli (Na)

Dr. Radoslaw Kolkowski
Advanced Materials Engineering and Modelling Group
Faculty of Chemistry
Wroclaw University of Science and Technology

Plasmonic nanostructures can concentrate the electromagnetic energy down to the nanoscale, which is accompanied by strong enhancement of diverse light-matter interactions, such as nonlinear optical effects. I will demonstrate several examples of this peculiar behavior. In particular, the effect of local nanostructure symmetry on the polarization dependence of second-harmonic generation (SHG) [1] will be presented. Giant nonlinear chiroptical effect in gold triangular nanoprisms arranged into chiral ensembles is one of the most spectacular demonstration of such dependence, where the efficiency of SHG changes by 40% for different circular polarizations of fundamental laser beam [2]. In another example, the variation of SHG efficiency (reaching 3 orders of magnitude) due to the presence of plasmonic band gap and plasmonic band edge resonance in non-centrosymmetric plasmonic crystals is shown [3]. Finally, I will present some results obtained using f-scan – a modified Z-scan technique [4], exploring the possibility of improving the performance of graphene as a saturable absorber by decoration of graphene monolayers by gold nanoparticles.

[1] R. Kolkowski, J. Szeszko, B. Dwir, E. Kapon, J. Zyss. Optics Express 22, 30592 (2014).

[2] R. Kolkowski, L. Petti, M. Rippa, C. Lafargue, J. Zyss. ACS Photonics 2, 899 (2015).

[3] R. Kolkowski, J. Szeszko, B. Dwir, E. Kapon, J. Zyss. Laser & Photonics Reviews 10, 287 (2016).

[4] R. Kolkowski, M. Samoc. Journal of Optics 16, 125202 (2014).