Abstract

Optical phenomena experience giant enhancements in fractal nanostructured materials consisting of small ~10 nm-sized features.¹ We studied nonlinear optical properties of fractal nanocomposites² and self-affine thin films.³ Optical excitations of nanomaterials with fractal morphology result in highly localized areas of large fields, with the spatial location of the "hot" spots depending on the light frequency. Because of the localization and large varieties of local structures, fractal nanomaterials resonate in a broad spectral range, providing strong enhancements for optical nonlinearities in the visible and infrared parts of the spectrum.

© 1997 Optical Society of America