Enhanced downconversion of UV light by resonant scattering of aluminum nanoparticles

Metallic nanoparticles are known to enhance nonlinear optical processes due to a local enhancement of the optical field. This strategy has been proposed to enhance downconversion in thin film solar cells, but has various disadvantages, among which is the fact that the enhancement occurs only in a tiny volume close to the particles. We report on a very different physical mechanism that can lead to significant downconversion enhancement, namely, that of resonant light scattering, and which is a large volume effect. We show that only a tiny amount of resonantly scattering metallic (aluminum) nanoparticles is enough to create a significant enhancement of the fluorescence of dye molecules in the visible wavelength range. The strategy can be applied in general to increase the emission of UV-absorbing constituents, and is of particular use for solar energy.     

纳米银与表面吸附荧光素的荧光性能的影响

研究了纳米银粒子对表面吸附荧光素(fluorescein,Fl)的荧光性能的影响。Fl溶液中加入纳米银粒子,Fl分子包覆在纳米银粒子表面形成Fl_n-Ag复合物使纳米银相互桥连形成类似网络的结构,且Fl分子吸收峰随着纳米银浓度的增加发生红移。纳米银通过产生的强局域场将能量传输给Fl发光中心,实现了Fl的荧光增强,荧光增强效率随着纳米银浓度的增加具有最大值。较大粒径的纳米银使Fl获得最大荧光增强效率所需浓度较低且最大荧光增强效率值较高。研究结果表明,纳米银与Fl间的能量传输主要由Fl分子附近局域电磁场增强和分子到金属表面无辐射跃迁能量转移过程所决定并与纳米银的浓度、尺寸密切相关。     

纳米银六角阵列在掺氧氮化硅中的局域表面等离激元共振特性仿真

通过COMSOL Multiphysics 和 Lumerical FDTD solution对不同尺寸纳米银六角阵列在非晶态掺氧氮化硅(a-SiN_x:O)介质中的局域表面等离激元共振(LSPR)特性进行仿真, 计算结果表明半径为25 nm的纳米银六角阵列形成的局域表面等离激元(LSP)与厚度为70 nm的a-SiN_x:O的蓝光发射(460 nm)的共振效果最为显著, 随着纳米银颗粒尺寸的增大其消光共振峰红移. 在460 nm波长激发下半径为25 nm的纳米银阵列在a-SiN_x:O中的极化强度和表面极化电荷的分布模拟证明了该阵列在460 nm激发下形成的LSP为偶极子极化模式, 通过对该尺寸的纳米银阵列的LSP 在a-SiN_x:O中的最强垂直辐射空间计算, 获得了银颗粒上方a-SiN_x:O的最佳厚度为30 nm, 仿真结果对硅基蓝光发射器件(450–460 nm)的设计提供了重要的理论参考.     

基于谐振吸收效应的单模单偏振光子晶体光纤研究

提出了一种基于谐振吸收效应的单模单偏振光子晶体光纤，阐述了其工作原理，并利用全矢量有限元法对其模场分布、限制损耗、工作带宽、消光比等基本特性进行了数值模拟. 数值结果表明这种结构可以获得很高的单模单偏振工作带宽，并能以较低的损耗代价实现极高的消光比.讨论了结构设计参量对光纤性能的影响.研究结果对设计新型的高性能单模单偏振光纤具有一定的指导意义.     

The optical conductivity of bilayer zigzag-edge graphene nanoribbons with external transverse electric fields

The optical absorption properties of bilayer zigzag-edge graphene nanoribbons (BL-ZGNRs) with external transverse electric fields are investigated by taking into account the Coulomb interaction effect in the Hartree-Fock approximation. We study the phase transitions of BL-ZGNRs induced by external electric fields and also the optical selection rules for the incident light polarized along the longitudinal and transverse directions. We find that the excitations from the edge states are crucial for the optical properties of BL-ZGNRs in the antiferromagnetic phase. We show that the low energy part of the optical absorption can be modulated by the external transverse electric field, and there is a broad band low frequency absorption enhancement for the transverse-polarized incident light in the charge-polarized state of BL-ZGNRs.     

Sunlight absorbing potential of carbon nanoball water and ethylene glycol-based nanofluids

Solar thermal collectors are applicable in the water heating or space conditioning systems in which surface-based absorption of incident solar flux cause high heat losses. Therefore, an enhancement in the efficiency of solar harvesting devices is a basic challenge which requires great effort. Adding nanoparticles to the working fluid in direct absorption solar collector, which has been recently proposed, leads to improvement in the working fluid thermal and optical properties such as thermal conductivity and absorption coefficient. This results certainly in collector efficiency enhancement. In this paper, the characteristics of nanofluids consisting carbon nanoball in water- and ethylene glycol-based suspensions in consideration of their use as sunlight absorber fluid in a DASC are investigated. It was found that by using of 300 ppm carbon nanoballs, the extinction coefficient of pure water and ethylene glycol is increased by about 3.9 cm^?1 and 3.4 cm^?1 in average, respectively. With these significantly promising optical properties, a direct absorption solar collector using carbon nanoball-based nanofluids can achieve relatively higher efficiencies, compared with a conventional solar collector.     

Scanning tunneling microscopy and spectroscopy of graphene layers on graphite

We report low temperature scanning tunneling microscopy and spectroscopy on graphene flakes supported on a graphite substrate. The experiments demonstrate that graphite is exceptionally well suited as a substrate for graphene because it offers support without disturbing the intrinsic properties of the charge carriers. The degree of coupling of a graphene flake to the substrate was recognized and characterized from the appearance of an anomalous Landau level sequence in the presence of a perpendicular magnetic field. By following the evolution of the Landau level spectra along the surface, we identified graphene flakes that are decoupled or very weakly coupled to the substrate. From the Landau level sequence in this flake, we extract the local Fermi velocity and energy of the Dirac point and find extremely weak spatial variation of these quantities confirming the high quality and non invasive nature of the graphite substrate.     

光解水的原子尺度机理和量子动力学

利用阳光直接将水分解为不含碳的氢气燃料和氧气是面向全球能源危机环保且低成本的解决方案.得益于电子结构理论和量子模拟方法的进步,人们已经能够直接研究在纳米颗粒上等离激元诱导光解水过程在原子尺度上的反应机理和超快动力学.本文简述近年来的相关工作进展.吸附在氧化物薄膜上的金纳米颗粒很有希望成为水分解的高效新型光催化剂.在光激发条件下,水分解反应速率和光强、热电子转移之间有强相关性.水分解速率不仅取决于光吸收强度,还受到等离激元量子振动模式的调控.这对于太阳能光解水器件中纳米颗粒的设计有借鉴意义.我们发现液态水在金团簇等离激元催化下100 fs内就能产生氢气.超快量子动力学模拟表明,该过程中场增强起主导作用,从金属到水反键态的超快电荷转移也扮演着重要角色.综合这些原子尺度上的量子动力学研究,我们提出受激水分子中氢原子高速碰撞(速度远远超出其热速度)合成氢分子的"链式反应"机理.     

Enhanced photoluminescence of CdSe quantum dots by the coupling of Ag nanocube and Ag film

The coupling of local surface plasmon(LSP) of nanoparticle and surface plasmon(SP) mode produced by metal film can lead to the enhanced electromagnetic field, which has an important application in enhancing the fluorescence of quantum dots(QDs). Herein, the Ag nanocube and Ag film are used to enhance the fluorescence of CdSe QDs. The enhancement is found to relate to the sizes of the Ag nanocube and the thickness of the Ag film. Moreover, we also present the fluorescence enhancement caused by only SP. The result shows that the coupling between metal nanoparticles and metal film can realize larger field enhancement. Numerical simulation verifies that a nanocube can localize a strong electric field around its corner. All the results indicate that the fluorescence of QDs can be efficiently improved by optimizing the parameters of Ag film and Ag cubes.     

Low-threshold plasmonic lasing based on high-Q dipole void mode in a metallic nanoshell

We propose a novel type of plasmonic lasing nanostructure consisting of a metallic shell and a gain core. We demonstrate numerically that highly localized void modes of such metallodielectric core-shell nanoparticles have a very high quality factor. We found that the dipole void mode has a lasing threshold as low as 128 cm(-1) at 800 nm as a result of the unique mode distribution within the shell, due to a maximum field enhancement around the void center. The lasing condition for a symmetry-reduced silver nanocup is also investigated and the low plasmonic lasing threshold is sustained provided that the opening angle of the nanocup is smaller than 10°. Our proposal presents a new path toward plasmonic lasers with low gain threshold.     

Effect of metallic nanoparticle sizes on the local field near their surface

We have used numerical calculations based on Mie theory to analyze the near field distribution patterns for 4–150 nm spherical silver nanoparticles (nanospheres). We have shown that as the nanoparticle sizes increase, the region where “hot spots” are concentrated is shifted to the forward hemisphere. We have observed a nonmonotonic dependence of the maximum attainable local field enhancement factor on the size of the silver nanospheres. We have determined a correlation between the optimal nanosphere size for the maximum attainable local field enhancement factor and the optical absorption efficiency factor. We have established a nonmonotonic dependence of the optimal size of the nanoparticles and the maximum attainable local field enhancement factor on the refractive index of the surrounding medium. Translated from Zhurnal Prikladnoi Spektroskopii, Vol. 75, No. 6, pp. 831–837, November–December, 2008.     

Plasmonic coupling from silver nanoparticle dimer array mediating surface plasmon resonant enhancement on the thin silver film

We investigate the optical absorption spectrum of a periodic array of silver nanoparticle dimer on a thin silver film using multiple-scattering formalism. Surface plasmon polariton mediated from silver nanoparticle dimer array is excited and enhanced by about four times compared with that from monomer array. This enhancement results from the coupling between the two nanoparticles’ plasmons of symmetry mode and anti-symmetry mode. We also illustrate the distance-dependent nanoparticle plasmonic coupling modes based on the polarized charge distribution in dimer geometry. The proposed silver nanoparticle dimer array can be used to enhance surface spectroscopy.     

Surface Plasmon Resonance and Field Enhancement of Au/Ag Alloyed Hollow Nanoshells

We investigate the nanostructure, surface plasmon resonance （SPR） absorption and nonlinear enhancement of Au/Ag alloyed hollow nanoshells prepared by the replacement reaction of Ag nanoparticles in a HAuCI4 aqueous solution. As the volume of HAuCl4 increases from OmL to 0.S mL, the SPR band of the Au/Ag alloyed nanoshells is tuned from 430nm to 780nm, and the third-order nonlinear optical susceptibility is enhanced nearly by an order of magnitude, which indicates a large enhancement of local field in the Au/Ag alloyed hollow nanoshells with hole defects.     

Towards Optimal Disorder in Gold Nanosponges for Long‐Lived Localized Plasmonic Modes

The potential of disorder to confine and enhance electromagnetic fields is well known and localized fields in turn can be used for non‐linear optical sensing and for studying quantum optics. Recently, nanoporous gold nanoparticles (nanosponges) were shown to support highly localized long‐lived plasmonic modes in the infrared spectral range. In this paper, we take first steps towards tailoring the disorder for optimal field localization and enhancement by calculating extinction and near‐field properties for different filling fractions and correlation lengths. We find that the filling fraction has not only a large effect on the fundamental dipolar surface‐plasmon resonance of the nanoparticle, but also on the frequency range in which localized modes of plasmonic nature occur. The influence of the correlation length is more subtle but is seen to influence the coupling between localized and far‐field modes as well. We briefly discuss first results on details of the localization process, which takes place on the same length scale as the typical structure size, so a simple cavity‐resonance picture cannot account for the relatively low frequency of the modes.     

双金属纳米天线在少周期激光中的宽带超快电磁响应

研究了耦合的核壳双金属纳米粒子天线的光场增强与超快时域响应. 在少周期激光的应用中, 如表面等离激元金属纳米器件中的超快响应探测元件, 这种双金属天线展示了超宽带共振频谱及控制局域表面等离激元增强的能力. 研究了二聚体、三聚体以及七聚体, 并且发现三聚体Ag/Au核壳结构显现了极高的场增强能力, 其场振幅增强因子超过了120, 并在5 fs的时间内场振幅迅速衰减为30, 保持了超快的光学响应特性. 利用该结构的表面等离激元增强效应产生高次谐波, 对于产生超快阿秒脉冲有着潜在的重要应用价值. 关键词： 纳米光学天线 双金属球壳结构 少周期激光脉冲 表面等离激元     

Direct visual evidence for chemical mechanisms of SERRS via charge transfer in Au20–pyrazine–Au20 junction

The essence of the chemical mechanism for surface‐enhanced resonance Raman scattering (SERRS) is the charge transfer (CT) between the metal and the molecule at the resonant electronic transition, which results in the mode‐selective enhancement in the SERRS spectrum. The site‐orientated CT can directly interpret the mode‐selective chemical enhancement in SERRS. However, it is a great challenge to intutively visualize the orientation and site of the CT. In this paper, for the pyrazine–Au₂ complex, a three‐dimensional (3D) cubic representation is built to provide direct visual evidence for chemical mechanisms of SERRS via CT from the Au₂ cluster to pyrazine at the resonant electronic transition. The relationship between the mode‐selective enhancements in SERRS and the site‐orientated CT was clearly revealed. The intracluster excitation (analog of plasmon excitation in large naonoparticles) was also visualized by the 3D cubic presentation, which provided the direct evidence of local electromagnetic field enhancement of SERRS. To study the quantum size effect and the coupling effect of the nanoparticles, the photoexcitation mechanisms of the Au₂₀–pyrazine complex and the Au₂₀–pyrazine–Au₂₀ junction were also investigated. The tunneling charge transfer from one Au₂₀ cluster to another Au₂₀ cluster outside the pyrazine in Au₂₀–pyrazine–Au₂₀ junction was also revealed visually. The calculated normalized extinction spectra of Au nanoparticles using the generalized Mie theory reveal that the resonance peak is red‐shifted due to the coupling between particles. Copyright © 2009 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Modification of optical absorption of molecule near metallic nanoparticles

We provide an analytical model for the enhancement of optical absorption of active molecules when they are placed in the vicinity of metal nanoparticles of subwavelength dimensions. Through Mie theory, in the context of plane wave expansion (PWE) of a single sphere, we have shown that for a fully random molecular orientation, the absorption enhancement factor is equal to the local field intensity enhancement factor and depends strongly on the nanoparticle size-enabling optimization and separation between the object and metal sphere. With this understanding to the modified absorption, we call for further efforts in the engineering of the perfect absorber.     

Schottky-enabled photoemission in a rf accelerator photoinjector: possible generation of ultralow transverse thermal-emittance electron beam

We present a clear signature of the Schottky effect in a rf photoinjector using photons with energy lower than the Mg cathode work function. This signature is manifested by the shift in the rf phase angle for the onset of the detection of photoelectrons via single-photon absorption and allows for a reasonable estimate of the field enhancement factor. This is a viable method to generate an electron beam with very low thermal emittance and thus, a high brightness beam.     

Au的金属颗粒对二硫化钼发光增强

二硫化钼(MoS₂)是一种层状的二维过渡金属硫族化合物材料,从块体到单层,禁带由间接带隙变为直接带隙,由于通常机械剥落的单层MoS₂是n型掺杂的,使得其发光效率仍然很低. 在本文中,采用匀胶机旋涂的方法将共振吸收峰在514 nm附近的纳米金颗粒尽可能均匀的铺在单层、双层以及多层的MoS₂样品表面,发现单层和双层样品的光致发光谱(PL谱)分别增强了约30倍和2倍同时伴随着峰位的蓝移,而多层样品的发光强度也略有增强. 拉曼特性揭示了纳米金颗粒对单层和双层MoS₂样品产生了明显的p型掺杂,从而增强了发光;同时纳米金颗粒的表面等离子激元效应对激发光的天线作用也是增强MoS₂的光致发光的一个因素. 关键词： 二硫化钼 光致发光 p型掺杂 Au纳米颗粒     

Interaction between plasmonic nanoparticles revisited with transformation optics

The interaction between plasmonic nanoparticles is investigated by means of transformation optics. The optical response of a dimer can be decomposed as a sum of modes whose resonances redshift when the nanoparticles approach each other. The extinction and scattering cross sections as well as the field enhancement induced by the dimer are derived analytically taking into account radiation damping. Interestingly, some invisibility dips occur in the scattering spectrum and originate from a destructive interference between each surface plasmon mode.