Nonlinear optical properties of Au-nanoparticles conjugated with lipoic acid in water

Abstract

Gold nanoparticles were chemically conjugated with lipoic acid to control their optical properties. Z-scan and other optical techniques were used to characterize the non-linear behavior of the resulting nanostructured materials. The results show that the nonlinearity is of thermal origin, which can be controlled by the use of lipoic acid as well as other organic molecules conjugated onto metal nanoparticles. In particular, the presence of lipoic acid increases n2, θ and dn/dt.

Keywords

• nanoparticles
• nonlinear optical properties
• z-scan
• lipoic acid