Effect of thickness on the optical nonlinearity of gold colloidal nanoparticles prepared by laser ablation.

The effect of thickness on the nonlinear optical properties of Au nanoparticles which produced by laser ablation of high purity gold bulk in distilled water were investigated by employing different optical techniques. Experiments were performed on the 0.3, 0.6, and 1 mm thickness cells of Au nanoparticles-fluid. The effect of nonlinear refractive index of samples on the laser beam broadening was observed. The optical limiting behavior of samples is investigated by measuring the transmitted intensity of the laser beam through the samples. The third order nonlinearity of Au nanoparticles-fluid was measured by using Z-scan data. Results show a positive second order refractive index and absorption coefficient for Au nanoparticles-fluid that are increased in due of increasing the thickness of the cells. The magnitudes of both real and imaginary parts of third order susceptibility of samples are increased by increasing the thickness. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]