Third-order optical nonlinearity of multi-armed CdS nanorods measured by the Z-scan method

The multi-armed US nanorods were synthesized by aqueous chemical growth route at room temperature. The nonlinear optical properties of CdS nanorods dispersed in ethanol solution were investigated using the Z-scan method at a wavelength of 532 nm with pulse duration of 25 ps. The third-order nonlinear optical susceptibility, chi((3)), was determined to be 1.6 x 10(-13) esu. Accounting for the CdS concentration and the effect of the dielectric confinement, chi((3)) was extrapolated to be similar to 10(-9) esu, which is over one order of magnitude larger than that of bulk material. (c) 2008 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.