Observation of asymmetric spectrum broadening induced by silver nanoparticles in a heavy-metal oxide glass

TL;DR

This paper reports on the experimental observation and theoretical analysis of asymmetric spectrum broadening in a heavy-metal oxide glass doped with silver nanoparticles, highlighting the effects of nonlinear dispersion and plasmon resonance.

Contribution

It introduces the first experimental demonstration of asymmetric spectrum broadening caused by silver nanoparticles in a heavy-metal oxide glass, supported by theoretical analysis.

Findings

Asymmetric spectrum broadening observed experimentally.

Blue shift of spectrum due to nonlinear dispersion.

Spectrum extension limited by plasmon resonance losses.

Abstract

We demonstrate experimentally and support by a theoretical analysis an effect of asymmetric spectrum broadening, which results from doping of silver nanoparticles into a heavy-glass matrix, 90(0.5WO3-0.3SbPO4-0.2PbO)-10AgCl. The strong dispersion of the effective nonlinear coefficient of the composite significantly influences the spectral broadening via the self-phase modulation, and leads to a blue upshift of the spectrum. Further extension of the spectrum towards shorter wavelengths is suppressed by a growing loss caused by the plasmon resonance in the silver particles. The red-edge spectral broadening is dominated by the stimulated Raman Scattering.