Electro-absorption in Metal Nanoparticles within Glass; Comparison with Quantum Dots in Nonconjugated Conductive Polymers

Quadratic electro-optic effect / Kerr coefficient of metal nanoparticles within glass and comparison with iodine doped nonconjugated conductive polymers have been recently reported. In this report, we will discuss results of the measurement of electro-absorption in gold nanoparticles in glass and compare the results with published data on electro-absorption in quantum dots within doped nonconjugated conductive polymers. The electro-absorption was found to increase quadratically with the applied electric field. The magnitude of electro-absorption appears to increase as d^-3, where d is diameter of metal nanoparticle. More detailed work on this is in progress. This dependence on d is similar to the recently reported results on Kerr coefficient. This is expected since electro-absorption is proportional to the imaginary part of χ⁽³⁾ and Kerr coefficient is proportional to the real part of the same.