Enhanced nonlinear optical and optical liming properties of holmium containing borate glasses embedded with silver nanoparticles

Herein, the nonlinear optical (NLO) and optical limiting (OL) features of silver nanoparticles (NPs) and holmium ions containing borate-based glasses bearing the nominal composition (79–x)B₂O₃–15Na₂O–5La₂O₃–1Ho₂O₃–xAgCl (x = 0, 0.1, 0.25, 0.5, and 0.75 mol%) were deliberated at 532 nm pumping utilizing the nanosecond laser pulses. We studied the NLO and OL characteristics of AgCl content varied glasses and identified that the Ho³⁺-doped glasses containing 0.5 mol% of AgCl was found to be optimized one. Then, for further tuning of the NLO traits, thermal treatment on optimized glass was carried out at 450 °C for diverse durations. The NLO absorption (two‒photon) and refraction (positive) features were noted to improve with AgCl content and thermal treatment duration, while the OL threshold followed an opposite trend. The enhance of NLO characteristics and OL performance of glasses was resulted on account of local field effect. The outcomes of the study endorse the Ho³⁺‒doped titled glass containing 0.5 mol% of AgCl thermally treated for 35 h at 450 °C is beneficial for data storage, signal processing and harmonic generation functionalities. Additionally, the enhance of NLO absorption along with decrease of OL threshold results acknowledge the same glass system is useful for OL applications for suppressing high energy coherent radiation in protecting the sensitive optical devices and human eye from laser damage.