Third-order nonlinear optical response of silicon nanostructures dispersed in organic solvent under 1064 nm and 532 nm laser excitations

Silicon nanostructures are dispersed into an organic solvent and the third order optical properties of the system are studied by z-scan technique under 1064 nm and 532 nm excitations. The experiment results show that the silicon nanostructures exhibit self-focus and saturable absorption with both excitation wavelengths. Nonlinear absorption results suggest that a new optical bleaching band exists under 532 nm excitation, and a two-step mechanism is tentatively put forward to explain the saturable absorption under 1064 nm excitation.