Boosting the nonlinear optical absorption of graphene oxide, and gold nanorods by tailoring graphene oxide-gold nanorods hybrids

Abstract Tailoring efficient nonlinear optical materials continues to be a topic of great interest in the scientific field. In this paper, we study the nonlinear response of graphene oxide nanosheets GO, gold nanorods AuNRs, and graphene oxide/gold nanorods hybrid nanocomposite GO@AuNRs respectively, GO was prepared by modified Hummer method while AuNRs were prepared by the seed-mediated method and GO@AuNRs prepared by simple ex-situ method. The nonlinear absorption was measured via open aperture Z scan using nanosecond pulses at 532 nm, The nonlinear absorption coefficients were measured for the proposed materials in colloidal and polymeric forms. The results show an enhancement of the nonlinear absorption and optical limiting of GO@AuNRs over GO and AuNRs. Furthermore, enhanced optical nonlinearity and stability are achieved in polymeric form compared to colloidal forms. These materials could potentially be used in optical limiting applications and photonic devices. Graphical abstract