Optical properties of Ag nanoparticles embedded Ba0.5Sr0.5TiO3 films prepared by alternating pulsed laser deposition

Nanocomposite thin films consisting of nanometer-sized Ag particles embedded in amorphous Ba0.5Sr0.5TiO3 matrix were prepared on fused silica substrates by an alternating pulsed laser deposition method. Their optical nonlinearities have been studied using the Z-scan method. The surface plasmon resonance (SPR) peak shifts to red and increases with the increasing the volume fraction of Ag in the nanocomposite films. The magnitude of the third-order nonlinear susceptibility of the nanocomposite with an Ag volume fraction of 3.3% was calculated to be approximately 2 x 10(-8) esu at the SPR wavelength.