Optical behavior of glasses containing gold nanoparticles: A review

Abstract

To fulfill the demand for fast and proficient optoelectronic components, considerable research has been conducted to design appropriate functional materials with sufficiently high nonlinearity and ultrafast response time. Among the reported materials, glasses dispersed with gold nanoparticles have proven to be the most proficient due to the unconventional properties shown by them. Furthermore one can easily tune their properties by simply changing the fabrication technique, composition of glass, adding co-dopants, etc. In addition, the concentration of nanoparticles and their morphology inside the glass are also important factors in determining the behavior of the glass. In this review article, a discussion on the performance of gold nanoparticles containing glasses has presented as a function of various factors like choice of glass composition, type of co-dopant, size, and shape of the nanoparticle. Despite conducting exceptional research in the area, having control over size, distribution, and stability in the glassy matrix are still unresolved issues.