Nonlinear Photonics in Glasses Doped with Quantum Dots and Plasmonic Nanoparticles

Abstract

Glasses, the most important optical materials, are highly transparent, structurally amorphous, and optically isotropic. Unlike many crystals without centrosymmetry, most glasses exhibit centrosymmetry without second-order optical nonlinearity and weak intrinsic optical nonlinearities, including nonlinear absorption and refraction. However, as glasses often have a wide composition range, their nonlinear absorption and refraction can be judiciously engineered by doping active centers and nanocrystals with different optical functionalities. In this review, we discuss recent advances in the engineering of glass for nonlinear photonics, with a focus on oxide glasses doped with quantum dots (QDs) and plasmonic nanoparticles (NPs). After briefly introducing the relevant nonlinear optics theory, we present a short overview of glass systems doped with QDs and plasmonic NPs oriented for nonlinear optical (NLO) applications. We then discuss in detail the investigations of the NLO properties of these glass systems and their applications for optical switching for pulse laser generation, mostly in the visible and near-infrared (NIR) regions. This review is finalized with a short summary of the development of NLO properties and applications based on the discussed glass systems and a brief envision for future directions.