Anisotropic nonlinear optical response in a graphene oxide-gold nanohybrid

In this Letter, we report for the first time, to the best of our knowledge, the anisotropic optical response in a graphene oxide (GO)-gold (Au) nanohybrid. Polarization-sensitive nonlinear optical absorption measurements revealed that nanohybrids are highly anisotropic, (β_⊥-β_‖)≈28cm/GW, which is more than one order of magnitude higher than that of control GO (2 cm/GW). The first-principle analysis of absorbance at nanohybrid interfaces with varying functional ligand concentrations corroborates with the experimentally observed intrinsic linear anisotropy. Thus, this Letter enables new routes to realize smart and high-performing nonlinear optical systems selectively and directionally such as tunable optical limiters and optical data processing devices.