Optical limiting property of gold nanorods/ormosil gel glass composites

Abstract Sol–gel derived ormosil gel glass can act as matrix for different functional molecules or nanomaterials due to its many advantages. Gold and silver colloidal nanoparticles have great application potential in nonlinear optical field due to their ultrafast optical response. In this letter, the nanocomposites of gold nanorods and ormosil gel glass were prepared by a solvent-assisted dispersing process and characterized by UV–vis spectra, TEM, XRD and optical limiting measurement. The results showed that these gold/ormosil nanocomposites could preserve optical limiting property of gold nanorods and had enhanced thermostability due to thermostable silica matrix. Such nanocomposite material of metal-doped gel glass matrix could be considered as a promising candidate for optical limiter against tunable laser.