SECOND-ORDER NONLINEAR OPTICAL PROPERTIES OF TITANIUM DIOXIDE NANOPARTICLES AND NANOPARTICLES-DYE COMPOSITES

Hyper-Rayleigh Scattering (HRS) technique was used to study the second-order nonlinear optical (NLO) responses of aqueous titanium dioxide (TiO₂) nanoparticles of 10nm in size, and two nanoparticles-dye composites prepared by adding rhodamine B (Rh610) or the organic tosylate salt of dimethylaminostilbazolium (DAST). Results showed that the "per particle" first hyperpolarizability β for TiO₂ nanoparticles is very large, in the range of 10²⁶ esu. With adding Rh610 and DAST, the HRS signals of the composites were further enhanced. And in TiO₂/Rh610 composite the enhancement was obviously greater than that of TiO₂/DAST composite. It has proved that non-centrosymmetry of the nanocrystal/solution interface contributes mainly to its large "per particle" β, overwhelming the nanocrystal core. So the interactions between nanoparticles surfaces and adsorbed dyes were very important for their second-order NLO responses. HRS technique provides a useful new NLO method to characterize the surface structures and microenvironment of nanoscale materials.