Paper
28 September 2013 Self-assembled nanomaterials for nonlinear fiber optics and tunable plasmonics
Islam Ashry, Chalongrat Daengngam, Ishac Kandas, James Heflin, Hans Robinson, Yong Xu
Author Affiliations +
Abstract
As an amorphous material with full inversion symmetry, silica-based microstructures cannot possess significant secondorder nonlinearity. We recently developed a method that can potentially overcome this deficiency by coating a silica fiber taper with layers of radially aligned nonlinear molecules. The coating process can be accomplished through layerby- layer self-assembly, where the alignment of the nonlinear molecules is maintained through electrostatic interaction. As a result, the nonlinear fiber structures are thermodynamically stable and can generate significant second-order nonlinear responses despite their full rotational symmetry. This prediction has been experimentally confirmed through SHG measurements. To further enhance the overall second-order nonlinearity, we have developed an UV-ablation-based approach that can generate second-order nonlinearity that is spatially periodic along the fiber taper. Our preliminary experiments suggest that SHG intensity can be enhanced by such quasi-phase-matching configurations.

We can also use the self-assembly approach to construct tunable plasmonic systems. As a proof-of-concept study, we assembled swellable polymer films over a planar Au substrate through layer-by-layer assembly and covered the swellable polymer with a monolayer of quantum dots. After immersing the swellable plasmonic structure in solution and adjusting its pH value, we used a fluorescence lifetime based approach to demonstrate that the thickness of the swellable polymers can be modified by almost 400%. The fluorescence lifetime measurements also confirmed that the plasmonic resonance can be significantly modified by the swellable polymers.
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Islam Ashry, Chalongrat Daengngam, Ishac Kandas, James Heflin, Hans Robinson, and Yong Xu "Self-assembled nanomaterials for nonlinear fiber optics and tunable plasmonics", Proc. SPIE 8845, Ultrafast Imaging and Spectroscopy, 88450D (28 September 2013); https://doi.org/10.1117/12.2024380
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KEYWORDS
Luminescence

Polymers

Plasmonics

Second-harmonic generation

Silica

Coating

Gold

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