Gradation-controlled electric field distribution in multilayered colloidal crystals.

We exploit theoretically nonlinear optical materials by graded multilayered colloidal crystals, whose basic layer is made of metallodielectric nanoparticles immersed periodically in a host fluid. In the crystals, either the volume fraction of nanoparticles or the dielectric constant of host fluid can vary gradually within layers. The electric field distribution can be shown to exhibit a peak in a certain layer, and that the position of the peak can change by tuning the incident angular frequency. Such a gradation-controlled electric field distribution serves as a physical mechanism for understanding the enhanced nonlinear optical responses with a broad plasmon band. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]