Controlling light with light in silver-nanospheres and gold-nanorods colloids

A review is presented on recent research that demonstrate the control of light-by-light in colloids containing silver-nanospheres (Ag-NS) and gold-nanorods (Au-NR). The presentation is based on experiments performed with pulsed lasers by exploiting the ultrafast electronic nonlinearity of samples exhibiting cubic-quintic nonlinearities. Guiding and confinement of light induced by optical vortex solitons in colloidal suspensions of Ag-NS, and nonlinear processes of light scattering, absorption and refraction in colloids with Au-NR were investigated in the experiments. The results are analyzed by numerical simulations based on modified nonlinear Schrödinger equations. The developments herein discussed are in the forefront of interest for plasmonic applications with metal nanoparticles.