Sol–gel synthesis of silver nanocrystals embedded in sodium borosilicate monolithic transparent glass with giant third-order optical nonlinearities

• We prepared Ag-doped sodium borosilicate monolithic glass.
• The influence of temperature on the SPR absorption peak intensity was studied.
• Nonlinear optical properties of the glass were investigated.
• A mechanism for the formation of Ag quantum dots glass was proposed.

We report the preparation of uniform spherical shape silver nanocrystals doped sodium borosilicate monolithic transparent glass by sol–gel method. The characterization of the resulting Ag nanocrystals was accomplished by using X-ray powder diffraction, transmission electron microscopy, X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy, and energy dispersive X-ray spectrum. Surface plasma resonance absorption peaks of the silver nanocrystals glass at about 406 nm have been obtained from ultraviolet–visible absorption spectrometer and their intensity is changed with different heat treatment temperatures. We have investigated the nonlinear optical properties of silver quantum dots doped glass using Z-scan technique. Third-order nonlinear optical susceptibility χ(3) of the glass was estimated to be 1.01 × 10−11 esu. In particular, a mechanism for the formation of Ag quantum dots glass is proposed. This work will significantly promote the obtained material applications in optical devices.

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