Nonlinear optical characterization of copper oxide nanoellipsoids

Abstract

Recently, nonspherical nanoparticles took attention due to advanced properties of these structures. We report the study of the nonlinear optical properties of copper oxide nanoellipsoids using 800 nm and 400 nm, 60 fs pulses. The optical limiting effect of copper oxide nanoellipsoids is analyzed. The influence of band gap of copper nanoparticles and copper oxide nanoellipsoids on their nonlinear optical response was studied. For the first time, the low- and high-order nonlinear optical responses of copper nanoellipsoids were studied. The magnitudes of nonlinear optical parameters of the suspension of copper oxide nanoellipsoids were measured to be γ = 1.23 × 10−15 cm2 W−1, and β = 1.0 × 10−11 cm W−1 respectively. We observed the four-fold enhancement of the nonlinear optical refraction of copper oxide nanoellipsoids at the wavelength of 400 nm, 60 fs probe pulses compared to 800 nm radiation. We also analyzed the high-order nonlinear response of CuO nanoellipsoids through generation of high-order harmonics of 800 nm, 60 fs pulses in the plasmas produced during laser ablation of the nanoellipsoid-contained targets. We demonstrated the harmonics up to the 35th order (E = 50 eV) in case of single-color pump and 24th (30 eV) in case of two-color pump.