Ultrafast Optical Switching in a Silver Nanoparticle System

Abstract

An ultrafast response of a silver nanoparticle system, as fast as 360 fs, was observed in a femtosecond optical-Kerr-shutter experiment. The ultrafast response is attributed to a self-diffraction of a pump pulse due to transient grating. We estimated χ (3) of the silver nanoparticle system to be 1.5 × 10 -7 esu in the femtosecond region.