Na2O-B2O3-SiO2 glass doped with In and Cu2In nanoparticles prepared by sol-gel method

► The In and Cu2In nanoparticles embedded in Na2O-B2O3-SiO2 glass were prepared by sol-gel methods. ► The crystal phase and composition of glass were characterized by XRD, EDS and XPS. ► The morphology and microstructure were measured by TEM. ► The third-order optical nonlinearity was investigated by using Z-scan technique. ► The χ(3) of In and Cu2In nanoparticles were 1.64 × 10− 10 esu and 2.77 × 10− 10 esu.