Profile calculation of gold nanostructures by dispersed-nanosphere lithography through oblique etching for LSPR applications

Nanosphere lithography is an inexpensive method used to fabricate gold nanostructures on a substrate. Using dispersed-nanosphere lithography, in which the nanospheres are dispersed on a substrate, 2D or 3D nanostructures can be fabricated by obliquely depositing a gold film on the nanospheres and etching the gold film afterward. These nanostructures are tunable and acute, and are thus good emitting elements for the localized surface plasmon resonance applications. So far, for the fabrication of nanostructures on a substrate with dispersed nanospheres, only 2D nanostructures have been reported through perpendicular etching. We report in this paper that the 3D nanostructures fabricated by dispersed-nanosphere lithography are rigid non-conformal structures, and perpendicular gold etching can be expanded to oblique etching, which provides more possibilities for fabricating the gold nanostructures in various shapes. The profiles of gold nanostructures after several varying angle depositions, and their final profiles after perpendicular or oblique etching, are calculated in this paper. Our profile simulations are applicable for nanospheres (or microspheres) within the range of tens of nanometers to tens of micrometers, and are consistent with our fabricated nanostructures observed using scanning electron and atomic force microscopy. Electronic Supplementary Material  The online version of this article (doi:) contains supplementary material, which is available to authorized users.     

基于石墨烯的Au纳米颗粒增强染料随机激光

石墨烯和纳米颗粒的复合材料具有新颖的光学和电学特性,被广泛应用于信息传感、光电转换、医学诊断等领域,具有十分广阔的发展前景.虽然石墨烯拥有优异的光电性能,可以实现对随机激光性质的调控,但目前实现特殊结构的石墨烯与金属纳米结构的复合过程复杂繁琐,利用石墨烯有效降低随机激光阈值仍存在挑战.本文利用便捷的化学还原及吸附法制备Au/石墨烯结构,以染料DCJTB为增益介质,使用旋涂法制备了均匀的薄膜样品;研究对比Au纳米颗粒和Au/石墨烯结构随机激光特性,分析了石墨烯的作用机理.研究结果表明,Au/石墨烯复合材料透射峰与增益介质的光致发光光谱峰最为接近,对于染料分子的能级迁跃起到了促进作用.在相同的增益介质中,石墨烯的加入不仅使得光子在无序介质中散射频次增加,促进了增益效果,而且增强了Au纳米颗粒表面的等离子体共振效应.二者相互协同,展现出了优异的随机激光特性,阈值降低至2.8μJ/mm~2;对样品重复测量可得样品的激射重复性较强、品质较高.本研究对促进随机激光应用、实现高性能的光电器件起到了一定的推动作用.     

电场辅助溶解法实现玻璃表面金纳米粒子的形貌控制

贵金属纳米粒子由于其非常独特的光学特性和表面活性, 在光子学、 催化和生物标识等方面都有非常重要的应用. 采用离子溅射和后续热处理相结合的方法在玻璃表面形成了尺寸大约为60-80 nm的单分散的球形金纳米粒子. 在适当的温度条件下, 采用步进式增加的强直流电场, 实现了金纳米粒子的电场辅助溶解过程. 在玻璃表面的不同颜色区域, 初始球形的金纳米粒子溶解成月蚀状形貌. 结合不同颜色区域内金纳米粒子的表面等离子体共振吸收性质和扫描电镜照片, 研究了实验条件对金纳米粒子性质的影响. 结合电场辅助溶解实验过程中的电流-电压特性, 分析了金纳米粒子在强直流电场辅助下溶解的物理过程: 金粒子中动出的电子向阳极的隧穿过程作为开始, 随后是金阳离子向玻璃基体中的传输过程和阴极提供的电子与带有正电荷的金粒子相结合的过程. 详细讨论了电场辅助溶解法实现金纳米粒子形貌控制的物理机制.     

Localized surface plasmon resonance of silicon compounds adsorbed on silver nanoparticles

A simple method to produce silver nanoparticles on a glass surface from silver nanolayer deposited by magnetron sputtering and thermal annealed is presented. Localized surface plasmon resonance of nanoparticles shows a red shift depending on the silver nanolayer thickness, the refractive index and the thickness of an ultra-thin silicon compound adsorbed on the surface. A highly enhanced Raman spectrum of the characteristic groups of a silicon compound adsorbed on the nanoparticles surface was obtained.     

Polarization-insensitive surface plasmon resonance sensor by cross-slit metallic periodic arrays

We propose a plasmonic structure to obtain polarization-insensitive localized surface plasmon resonance (LSPR) sensor, which consists of cross-slit metallic periodic arrays embedded in the background material. Numerical simulation illustrates that the mechanism of the LSPR sensor is based on the shift of the Fabry–Perot cavity mode resonance peak in the spectrum as the change of the dielectric material properties for the near fields. And one of the transmission dips of the structure is very sensitive to the background materials; the structure could gain the sensitivity (nm/RIU) more than 500 nm/RIU. Meanwhile, the structure holds great potential to achieve high-performance sensors in practical application due to polarization-insensitive virtue.     

基于表面等离子体共振传感器的金胶体表征

设计了表面等离子体共振(SPR)传感器实验装置,制备了金膜和金纳米胶体溶液,测量了不同厚度金膜和不同浓度金胶体溶液的SPR角谱,得到了不同浓度金胶体溶液的折射率.     

一种用于表面等离子体共振传感器的纳米多孔金膜

为了打破传统的表面等离子体共振(SPR)生物传感器灵敏度不高的限制,近年来纳米材料在SPR生物传感器中的运用得到广泛的研究。但是纳米材料的制备一般都比较困难而且费用高昂,这给研究带来了困难。笔者采用化学腐蚀法制备出一种纳米多孔金膜,利用扫描电子显微镜和光谱仪等测试手段对该金膜的结构和光学性质进行了分析,并将该金膜用于SPR生物传感器实验研究。结果表明,与传统的平面金膜相比,该纳米多孔金膜具有独特的局域表面等离子体共振效应。装配有该金膜的SPR生物传感器在对生物试剂的检测中灵敏度有了一定程度的提高,且该金膜的制备方法简单,成本低廉,完全可以替代传统的平面金膜使用。     

Tuning the optical properties of Fe-Au core-shell nanoparticles with spherical and spheroidal nanostructures

Present research interest is to highlight on the manufacturing of core-shell nanoparticles because of core activity with unique properties and surface modification by a shell in the diverse fields (e.g. optoelectronic, catalysis and magneto-optics). In addition, the combined optical properties of magnetic-plasmonic core-shell NPs make them ideal candidates for many applications in biomedical fields. The influence of Fe-core and Au-shell for the formation of the core-shell viz. spherical and spheroidal nanostructures is studied using the discrete dipole approximation method. DDA is an approximation method and its accuracy is compared to Mie theory results for spherical core-shell NPs as Mie theory gives the exact solution to spherical targeted NPs. DDA calculations are further extended to spheroidal core-shell nanostructures. It is observed that the localized surface plasmon resonance (LSPR) peak position in considered core-shell nanostructures is enhanced by changing the cores and shell thickness in the core-shell spherical nanostructures and aspect ratio as well as shell thickness in spheroidal core-shell nanostructures. The absorption spectra are found between 363–788 nm wavelength ranges and can be tuned into UV-visible-near-infrared region of the electromagnetic (EM) spectrum in accordance with desired applications. It has been found that the Fe@hollow@Au and prolate core-shell nanostructures show enhancement to LSPR peaks, bandwidth and their corresponding intensities in comparison to other considered spherical and spheroidal core-shell nanostructures. Tunability in core size, shell thickness, aspect ratio, and configuration will open new potential uses of suitable magnetic-plasmonic core-shell nanostructures in cancer therapy, tissue engineering, drug delivery, and many more of biomedical fields.     

Enhanced optical absorption by Ag nanoparticles in a thin film Si solar cell

Thin film solar cells have the potential to significantly reduce the cost of photovoltaics. Light trapping is crucial to such a thin film silicon solar cell because of a low absorption coefficient due to its indirect band gap. In this paper, we investigate the suitability of surface plasmon resonance Ag nanoparticles for enhancing optical absorption in the thin film solar cell. For evaluating the transmittance capability of Ag nanoparticles and the conventional antireflection film, an enhanced transmittance factor is introduced. We find that under the solar spectrum AM1.5, the transmittance of Ag nanoparticles with radius over 160 nm is equivalent to that of conventional textured antireflection film, and its effect is better than that of the planar antireflection film. The influence of the surrounding medium is also discussed.     

表面等离子共振金/钯复合膜氢敏传感器

提出了一种新颖的钯(Pd)/金(Au)复合膜表面等离子共振氢敏结构,与单一Pd膜氢敏传感器相比,具有可靠性好、灵敏度高和响应度大等特点。利用表面等离子共振理论建立了Au/Pd复合膜氢敏传感器的数学模型,并对Au/Pd复合膜氢敏传感器的灵敏度进行了数值模拟。数值模拟结果表明:基于Au(2nm)/Pd(20nm)复合膜氢敏传感器所获得的最佳灵敏度比单一Pd(20nm)膜氢敏传感器提高了49 4%。     

基于SPASER机制的偏心金壳纳米天线的多波长散射特性

基于表面等离激元受激辐射放大(SPASER)机制,提出了一种硅-金-硅三层核壳偏心纳米天线,并利用有限元法分析了其多波长散射特性.结果表明:在SPASER机制下,该纳米天线产生极大的散射光强度,且工作波长的数目随着硅核偏心率的增加而增加;当硅核的偏心率为9 nm时,该纳米天线有4个共振峰,分别位于615 nm、656 nm、724 nm、847 nm,其对应的散射强度比非SPASER机制的纳米天线的散射强度高104倍;该纳米天线的散射波长还可以通过改变入射光的偏振角调节.基于SPASER机制的纳米天线对于设计多波长纳米激光器具有指导意义.     

Synthesis of Au nanorods in a low pH solution via seed-media method

The gold(Au) nanorods with various aspect ratios are obtained by a seed-media method in low pH growth solution.Transmission electron microscopy(TEM) and UV-visible spectrophotometry are utilized to characterize the Au nanorods,and the longitudinal absorption peak positions of Au nanorods show different shifting trends of the growth evolutions in various low pH(1～3) solutions. Other influential factors on the shape of Au nanorod are also systematically studied under low pH reaction condition. The positions of longitudinal peak shift between 600 nm and 900 nm, with the aspect ratios of Au nanorods varying from 2 to 5 both in the simulation and experimental results. The simulation results are in agreement with experimental ones.     

Non-linear optical properties of silver nanoparticles prepared by hydrogen reduction method

Silver nanoparticles have been prepared using hydrogen gas as the reducing agent for silver nitrate and poly(vinyl pyrrolidone) as the capping agent; the reaction was carried out at 70 °C for 3 h. The size of the nanoparticles was found to be about 20 nm as analyzed using transmission electron micrographs. The X-ray diffraction pattern revealed the face-centered cubic (fcc) structure of silver nanoparticles. The linear absorption of Ag nanoparticles, α, is obtained about 3.71 cm⁻¹. The non-linear refractive indices of silver nanoparticles were defined by the z-scan technique using CW He-Ne laser (λ = 632.8 nm) at different incident intensities. The magnitude of non-linear refractive index (n₂) was measured to be in the order of 10⁻⁷ (cm²/W) with a negative sign. Therefore self-defocusing phenomena is taking placed for Ag nanoparticles.     

基于D型双芯PCF的近红外宽检测范围SPR折射率传感器

现有报道的PCF-SPR折射率传感器的检测范围普遍较窄,不能实现低折射率的检测,且工作波段多数集中在可见光或通信波段,这限制了传感器的应用范围.鉴于此,提出了一种基于D型双芯PCF结构的SPR传感器,使用氧化铟锡作为等离子体材料沉积在D型PCF抛光表面,并对该传感器的理论模型进行了分析,包括金属参数对传感性能的影响,P...     

Numerical study of a highly sensitive surface plasmon resonance sensor based on circular-lattice holey fiber

A new design of surface plasmon resonance (SPR) sensor employing circular-lattice holey fiber to achieve high-sensitivity detection is proposed. The sensing performance of the proposed sensor is numerically investigated and the results indicate that our proposed SPR sensor can be applied to the near-mid infrared detection. Moreover, the maximum wavelength sensitivity of our proposed sensor can reach as high as 1.76×10⁴ nm/refractive index unit (RIU) and the maximum wavelength interrogation resolution can be up to 5.68×10^-6 RIU when the refractive index (RI) of analyte lies in (1.31, 1.36). Thanks to its excellent sensing performance, our proposed SPR sensor will have great potential applications for biological analytes detection, food safety control, bio-molecules detection and so on.     

Concentration-related enhancement of the sensitivity of surface plasmon resonance of metallic nanoparticles to the characteristics of a dielectric environment

We present the results of theoretical and experimental studies of the optical attenuation spectra of planar nanocomposites consisting of close-packed monolayers of metallic nanoparticles placed in different dielectric matrices. We have analyzed the dependence of the spectral position of the collective surface plasmon resonance (collective SPR) on the refractive index of the dielectric environment. The experimental samples were created by successive thermal vaporization under vacuum of a metal and a dielectric. The theoretical calculations were performed using the quasicrystal approximation of multiple wave scattering theory. We have shown that an increase in the concentration of nanoparticles of noble metals shifts the maximum of the collective SPR band toward longer wavelengths, and significantly increases the sensitivity of its spectral position to the refractive index of the dielectric environment. __________ Translated from Zhurnal Prikladnoi Spektroskopii, Vol. 75, No. 4, pp. 568–572, July–August, 2008.     

Localized surface plasmon resonance scattering imaging and spectroscopy for real-time reaction monitoring

Abstract

In the last decade, plasmonic nanoparticles-based scattering imaging and spectroscopy has introduced the analysis and sensing to the single nanoparticle and molecule level, such as the biomolecules adsorption process and the quantitative detection of small molecules and ions. Recently, this technology has also been focus on the real-time and in-situ reaction monitoring, which is a new emerging branch of the single-nanoparticle imaging, revealing the reaction dynamic information and the related controlling factors. In this mini-review, recent applications of plasmon resonance scattering imaging and spectroscopy in the real-time reaction monitoring in the past 5?years are highlighted and discussed.     

复合金属光栅模式分离与高性能气体传感器应用

为实现近红外波段表面等离子体共振(SPR)模式的分裂和移动, 同时提高光栅基SPR传感器的品质因数, 提出了一种由双金属光栅构成的新型复合结构光栅, 并研究了其气体传感特性. 运用有限时域差分算法对该结构进行了数值模拟, 发现由复合金属光栅激发的SPR出现模式分裂的现象. 通过增大双金属光栅阵列间的相对位移改变原结构的对称性, 导致复合金属光栅分裂的SPR模式朝相反方向移动. 当相对位移量进一步增大到双光栅合并成新的单一光栅时, 随光栅结构对称性的恢复, 分裂的两共振模式最后又重新合并为一个模式. 如果待测物的折射率为1.01≤n_a≤1.05, 当相对位移量为0时, 基于复合光栅结构气体传感器的折射率灵敏度为1207.5 nm/RIU, 且品质因数达到1290.7; 当相对位移量为100 nm时, 与双共振模式对应的折射率灵敏度分别为1205.0 nm/RIU和1210.0 nm/RIU, 品质因数分别为1295.4和762.3. 因此, 复合光栅SPR传感器具有超高品质因数的性能, 使得它在生物化学传感领域中有巨大的应用潜力.     

多分散Au-Ag合金纳米球的光谱消光法反演

贵金属纳米颗粒具有局域表面等离子体共振特性而引起了广泛的关注,其中Au-Ag合金纳米颗粒具有良好的结构稳定性、光热性能以及潜在的抗癌功效而得到普遍研究。在众多应用中的特性与其粒径和浓度密切相关,然而目前常用的电子显微镜观察法和动态光散射法不能同时获得粒径和浓度信息,因此采取有效手段测量颗粒粒径和浓度信息至关重要。基于光谱消光法,利用非负的Tikhonov正则化方法解决反演问题,并根据Mie理论计算消光矩阵。针对噪声问题,采取两种情况研究多分散Au-Ag合金纳米球粒径分布与浓度的反演问题。未添加噪声情况下,颗粒系Ⅰ的反演相对误差小于颗粒系Ⅱ,在波长范围300～500 nm之间的反演相对误差最小,对应平均粒径、粒径标准差和颗粒数浓度的反演相对误差分别为0%,-0.03%和0%。添加随机噪声情况下,将0.5%和1.0%的随机噪声添加进颗粒系Ⅰ中的消光谱,经过数据比较发现在波长范围200～600 nm之间的反演相对误差最小。当添加0.5%的随机噪声时,粒径分布、粒径标准差和颗粒数浓度的变化范围分别为79.76～80.15 nm, 5.60～6.61 nm和0.995 8×1010～1.005 9×1010个·cm-3;当添加1.0%的随机噪声时,粒径分布、粒径标准差和颗粒数浓度的变化范围分别为78.87～80.27 nm, 5.36～9.00 nm和0.992 4×1010～1.027 7×1010个·cm-3。反演结果随着随机噪声的增大,变化范围也明显增大即反演相对误差增大,并且每次添加相同随机噪声后的反演结果不同。为了减少随机噪声导致的不稳定性,对100次反演结果进行平均得到平均粒径、粒径标准差和颗粒数浓度。当随机噪声从0.5%增大至1.0%时,其反演结果的相对误差均增大,但是反演得到的粒径分布、粒径标准差和颗粒数浓度相对误差均小于6%,这说明通过反演算法得到的反演结果具有较好的稳定性。研究表明,光谱消光法为反演多分散Au-Ag合金纳米球粒径分布与浓度提供了一种简单、快速的表征手段,也对研究非球形纳米颗粒有启示作用。