Averaged third-order susceptibility of ZnO nanocrystals from Third Harmonic Generation and Third Harmonic Scattering

Abstract Both coherent Third Harmonic Generation (THG) at the interfaces of a cuvette filled with a nanocrystal suspension and incoherent Second and Third Harmonic Scattering (THS) from the suspension volume have been studied to quantitatively assess the orientation-averaged third-order susceptibility 〈 χ N P s ( 3 ) 〉 of ZnO. These two complementary experimental approaches are based on different calibration routes with a nanocomposite model and fused-silica as a reference material for THG, and pNa molecules for THS. Similar and consistent absolute values of 〈 χ N P s ( 3 ) 〉 (above 10 − 18 m 2 /V 2 ) are derived and discussed according to the particular orientation averaging procedure that holds for each experimental configuration for a 1064 nm excitation wavelength.