Influence of NaCl on the morphological, spectral, and nonlinear optical characteristics of laser-produced silver and gold nanoparticles

Metal nanoparticle formation using laser ablation of targets in water by picosecond pulses is a well-developed process. Here we demonstrate how the salt and sugar being dissolved in water differently affect the spectral characteristics of the absorbance of the suspensions produced during ablation of silver and gold targets. We demonstrate the disappearance of the surface plasmon resonances of Ag and Au nanoparticles in the salt-containing solutions. The presence of salt does not allow for maintaining the synthesis of nanoparticles during ablation of metals contrary to the sugar-containing solution. Our nonlinear optical studies show that the saturable absorption observed in the nanoparticles-containing suspensions produced during laser ablation of silver and gold in distilled water and sugar-containing water entirely disappears in the case of the suspension produced during the ablation of these metals in salt-containing solution.