Optical nonlinearity in silver-sodium ion exchanged planar waveguides

Abstract

We report on the nonlinear optical response due to the silver nanoclusters formation in silver-sodium ion exchanged planar waveguides fabricated on a commercial phosphate glass. The ion exchange was performed from a ternary salt melt. The absorption spectrum in the visible region indicates the formation of silver nanoclusters in the waveguide. The intensity dependent nonlinear refractive index and the nonlinear absorption of the glass waveguide were measured by zscan method.