To provide a manufacturing method of a nonlinear optical material wherein metal fine particles or semiconductor fine particles are dispersed in an amorphous material to be a matrix in a large quantity and uniformly and particle diameter distribution of the fine particles is narrow and composition deviation is small and from which a device can be easily made.

A first step (S101) for depositing an amorphous thin film on a substrate using a plasma CVD method, a second step (S102) for performing nucleation of the metal fine particles by irradiating the amorphous thin film formed on the substrate with a laser beam and a third step (S103) for promoting the nuclear growth of the metal fine particles by heating the amorphous thin film at a prescribed temperature, are performed.