Gyroscopic behavior exhibited by the optical Kerr effect in bimetallic Au–Pt nanoparticles suspended in ethanol

The modification in the third-order nonlinear optical response exhibited by rotating bimetallic Au–Pt nanoparticles in an ethanol solution was analyzed. The samples were prepared by a sol–gel processing route. The anisotropy associated to the elemental composition of the nanoparticles was confirmed by high-resolution transmission electron microscopy and energy-dispersive X-ray spectroscopy measurements. The size of the nanoparticles varies in the range from 9 to 13 nm, with an average size of 11 nm. Changes in the spatial orientation of the nanomaterials automatically generated a variation in their plasmonic response evaluated by UV–Vis spectroscopy. A two-wave mixing experiment was conducted to explore an induced birefringence at 532 nm wavelength with nanosecond pulses interacting with the samples. A strong optical Kerr effect was identified to be the main responsible effect for the third-order nonlinear optical phenomenon exhibited by the nanoparticles. It was estimated that the rotation of inhomogeneous nanostructures can provide a remarkable change in the participation of different surface plasmon resonances, if they correspond to multimetallic nanoparticles. Potential applications for developing low-dimensional gyroscopic systems can be contemplated.