Nonlinear optical properties of silicon nanoclusters

Abstract
The nonlinear and linear optical responses of Si nanoclusters at λ=355 nm were measured. The nanoclusters were laser ablated on quartz substrates. χ(3) values as high as 2.28×10−5 esu (as measured by the Z-scan technique) and lifetime as long as 143 ns were measured for clusters of an average size of 11 nm. The optical properties were strongly correlated with the clusters’ sizes.