Na2O–B2O3–SiO2 glass doped with In and Cu2In nanoparticles prepared by sol–gel method

Na2O–B2O3–SiO2 glass doped with In and Cu2In nanoparticles are fabricated through sol–gel technique. The morphology and structure of the samples are investigated by X-ray diffraction (XRD) technique, X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy (XPS), transmission electron microscopy (TEM) and energy dispersive spectroscopy (EDS). The results show that the tetragonal phase of In particles with an average size about 50.0 nm and hexagonal phase of Cu2In particles about 31.5 nm are formed in the glass matrix. The absorption optical properties of the as-prepared glass are also characterized. Furthermore, the glasses are measured by Z-scan technique to investigate the third-order nonlinear optical properties. The results display that the In and Cu2In nanoparticles have the behaviors of both nonlinear optical saturable absorption and refraction with self-defocusing effect. The third-order nonlinear optical coefficient χ(3) of In and Cu2In nanoparticles are calculated to be 1.64 × 10− 10 esu and 2.77 × 10− 10 esu, respectively.