Abstract

Small metal particles embedded in glasses have attracted much interest as materials for all optical functional devices, such as optical switches, shutters, or waveguides.¹ Although the large nonlinearity and the fast time response are expected for such materials, the value of the third-order nonlinear susceptibility, χ⁽³⁾, of these glasses was at the range of 10^–13-10^–11 esu because of the low solubility of Au into glasses.² To resolve this problem, we have tried to prepare Au-particles/SiO₂ glass composite thin films (Au/SiO₂ films) with higher Au concentrations using a sputtering method. We could obtain the larger χ⁽³⁾ values of 10^–7-10^–9 esu at the surface plasmon resonance of Au particles.

© 1994 IEEE