Tuning of third-order nonlinear optical susceptibility of Eu3+ doped alkali borate glasses in visible region by embedding gold nanoparticles

Yas Al‒Hadeethi; Arwa T. Kutbee; Moustafa Ahmed; M. I. Sayyed; Gangareddy Jagannath

doi:10.1140/epjp/s13360-022-02992-1

2024 Impact factor 2.9

EPJ PLUS - Condensed Matter and Complex Systems

Eur. Phys. J. Plus (2022) 137: 765
https://doi.org/10.1140/epjp/s13360-022-02992-1

Regular Article

Tuning of third-order nonlinear optical susceptibility of Eu³⁺ doped alkali borate glasses in visible region by embedding gold nanoparticles

Yas Al‒Hadeethi¹^,2^a, Arwa T. Kutbee¹, Moustafa Ahmed¹, M. I. Sayyed³ and Gangareddy Jagannath⁴^e

¹ Physics Department, Faculty of Science, King Abdulaziz University, 21589, Jeddah, Saudi Arabia
² Lithography in Devices Fabrication and Development Research Group, Deanship of Scientific Research, King Abdulaziz University, 21589, Jeddah, Kingdom of Saudi Arabia
³ Department of Physics, Faculty of Science, Isra University, Amman, Jordan
⁴ Department of Post–Graduate Studies and Research in Physics, The National College, Jayanagar, 560070, Bengaluru, Karnataka, India

^a yalhadeethi@kau.edu.sa
^e jagannathgreddy@gmail.com

Received: 3 December 2021
Accepted: 22 June 2022
Published online: 3 July 2022

Abstract

Alkali borate-based glasses containing Eu₂O₃ embedded with different concentration of AuCl₃ were fabricated by melting and quenching process. The transmission electron microscopic measurements revealed morphology of the gold nanoparticles (NPs) embedded in glasses. The nonlinear optical features have been studied using Z-scan at 532 nm excitation utilizing nanosecond laser pulses. The nonlinear absorption and refraction features were ascertained by operating the Z-scan technique in open aperture (OA) and closed aperture (CA) configurations, respectively. OA and CA Z-scan signatures unveiled the presence of two-photon absorption and self-focusing refraction nonlinearities, respectively. In the AuCl₃ varied glasses, the highest value of the third-order nonlinear susceptibility (χ⁽³⁾) (8.01 × 10^‒13 esu) was obtained for 0.02 mol% of AuCl₃ doped glasses. This optimized system annealed at 450 °C for diverse schedules to tune χ⁽³⁾ of glass matrices to higher value (for 30 h of annealing, the χ⁽³⁾ found to be 12.77 × 10^‒13 esu). The enhancement in χ⁽³⁾ with respect to the gold NPs and with respect to heat treatment schedules was regarded to electric field generated by gold NPs near the Eu³⁺ ions. However, the results were adversely attenuated at higher heat treatment durations (at 40 h) due to non-uniform local field generated by larger size gold NPs. The nonlinear optical results suggest that the heavily AuCl₃ loaded glass and heat treated at 450 °C for 30 h durations are beneficial for applications in nonlinear photonic devices in the visible region.