Valence state control and third-order nonlinear optical properties of copper embedded in sodium borosilicate glass

The integrated and transparent sodium borosilicate glasses that contain copper exhibiting different colors, that is, red, green, and blue were synthesized by combining the sol-gel process and heat treatment in H2 gas. To reveal substantially the cause of different colors in the glass, X-ray diffraction (XRD), transmission electron microscopy (TEM) and high resolution TEM (HRTEM) were systematically applied to investigate and determine the microstructure of the doped matter. The results showed three different crystals had formed in the red, green and blue glass, and the sizes of these crystals were range from 9 to 34, 1 to 6, and 1 to 5 nm, respectively. The valence state of copper was further analyzed by X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy (XPS) and electron energy loss spectroscopy (EELS). The third-order nonlinear optical properties of the glasses were investigated by using Z-scan technique at the wavelength of 800 nm. Interestingly, the third-order nonlinear absorption of the red, green, and blue glass can be successfully controlled from reverse saturable absorption, no absorption to saturable absorption and the optical nonlinear susceptibility χ((3)) of the red, green and blue glass were estimated to be 6.4 × 10(-14), 1.6 × 10(-14), and 2.6 × 10(-14) esu in the single-pulse energy of 0.36 μJ, respectively.