Related Experiment Video
Updated: Jan 26, 2026

Utilization of Plasmonic and Photonic Crystal Nanostructures for Enhanced Micro- and Nanoparticle Manipulation
Published on: September 27, 2011
Plasmonic Ag nanoparticles embedded in lithium tantalate crystal for ultrafast laser generation
1School of Physics, State Key Laboratory of Crystal Materials and Key Laboratory of Particle Physics and Particle Irradiation (MOE), Shandong University, Jinan 250100, People's Republic of China.
Abstract:
We report the Ag nanoparticles (NPs) embedded in LiTaO3 (AgNP:LT) by direct Ag+ ion implantation. Transmission electron microscope imaging indicates that the embedded Ag NPs have an average diameter of 3.65 nm. The linear optical absorption spectrum of AgNP:LT peaking at 477 nm is observed owing to the typical effect of localized surface plasmon resonance. Z-scan investigation shows ultrafast saturable absorption of AgNP:LT at the near infrared 1 μm wavelength, which enables AgNP:LT to be a new saturable absorber (SA) for the generation of 1 μm Q-switched mode-locked pulsed laser with pulse duration of 35 ps and repetition rate of 8.74 GHz. This work not only opens a new way to tailor the nonlinearity of LiTaO3 by embedding Ag+ NPs, but also develops AgNP:LT as a new SA for ultrafast laser generation.
Related Concept Videos
Ionic Crystal Structures
Most monatomic ions behave as charged spheres, and their attraction for ions of opposite charge is the same in every direction. Consequently, stable structures for ionic compounds result (1) when ions of one charge are surrounded by as many ions as possible of the opposite...
Crystal Growth: Principles of Crystallization
Initiating crystallization involves manipulating the concentration of the solute and the temperature of the solution. Since crystal growth occurs when the ratio of concentration and solubility of the solute in the solvent...
Crystal Field Theory - Octahedral Complexes
To explain the observed behavior of transition metal complexes (such as colors), a model involving electrostatic interactions between the electrons from the ligands and the electrons in the unhybridized d orbitals of the central metal atom has been developed. This electrostatic model is crystal field theory (CFT). It helps to understand, interpret, and predict the colors, magnetic behavior, and some structures of coordination compounds of transition metals.
CFT focuses on...
Crystal Field Theory - Tetrahedral and Square Planar Complexes
Crystal field theory (CFT) is applicable to molecules in geometries other than octahedral. In octahedral complexes, the lobes of the dx2−y2 and dz2 orbitals point directly at the ligands. For tetrahedral complexes, the d orbitals remain in place, but with only four ligands located between the axes. None of the orbitals points directly at the tetrahedral ligands. However, the dx2−y2 and dz2 orbitals (along the Cartesian axes) overlap with the ligands less than the dxy,...
DC Generator
Generation Time

