Bringing Tunability to Ultrafast Nanoplasmonics

by Maaza Malik & Aboubakar Chedikh Beye SPIE Newsroom, accessed 17 May 2006 The nanosciences are stimulating the possibility of engineering novel nanophotonics with tunable, tailored properties. In particular, nanocomposites with metallic nanoparticles embedded in an insulating host matrix, represent a distinctive class of nanoplasmonics: they have specific nonlinear characteristics due to enhancement of the local field. The cost effectiveness of these materials could open up photonic applications in wave mixing, heterodyning, and modulation, and could expand their role in laser applications. Read more