Opt Express. 2017 Sep 04;25(18):21049-21067. doi: 10.1364/OE.25.021049.

Nonlinear polarization instability in cubic-quintic plasmonic nanocomposites.

Optics express

Albert S Reyna, Emeric Bergmann, Pierre-François Brevet, Cid B de Araújo

PMID: 29041514 DOI: 10.1364/OE.25.021049

Abstract

We report a study of the nonlinear birefringence induced in a metal-dielectric nanocomposite due to the contributions of third- and fifth-order optical nonlinearities. A theoretical model describing the evolution of the light polarization state of a confined laser beam propagating through the nonlinear medium is developed with basis on a pair of coupled dissipative cubic-quintic nonlinear differential equations related to the two orthogonal polarizations of the optical field. As a proof-of-principle experiment we demonstrate the control of the light beam polarization in a silver-nanocolloid by changing the silver nanoparticles volume fraction, f, and the light intensity. A large nonlinear phase-shift (~20π) was observed using a 9 cm long capillary filled with silver nanoparticles suspended in carbon disulfide. Experiments using colloids with 1.0×10

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