Engineered nonlinear materials using gold nanoantenna array

Abstract

Gold dipole nanoantennas embedded in an organic molecular film provide strong local electromagnetic fields to enhance both the nonlinear refractive index (n 2) and two-photon absorption (2PA) of the molecules. An enhancement of 53× for 2PA and 140× for nonlinear refraction is observed for BDPAS (4,4′-bis(diphenylamino)stilbene) at 600 nm with only 3.7% of gold volume fraction. The complex value of the third-order susceptibility enhancement results in a sign change of n 2 for the effective composite material relative to the pure BDPAS film. This complex nature of the enhancement and the tunability of the nanoantenna resonance allow for engineering the effective nonlinear response of the composite film.