局域态密度对表面等离激元特性影响的研究

表面等离激元是一种在金属与介质界面上激发并耦合电荷密度起伏的电磁振荡, 具有近场增强和短波长等特性, 在纳米光子学的研究中扮演重要角色. 将表面等离激元的效应用于单光子源的制备, 不但可以有效减小器件的体积, 而且可以有效提高单光子的辐射和收集效率. 本文根据表面等离激元的珀赛尔系数与光子态密度的关系, 采用局域态密度计算的方法, 分析了不同金属材料的局域态密度及珀赛尔系数的特性. 通过计算比较, 选择银为最佳金属材料, 并在此基础上讨论了探测距离和电介质材料对局域态密度和珀赛尔系数的影响, 为基于表面等离子激元的单光子源制备提供重要参数.     

Photochemical synthesis of ZnO/Ag nanocomposites

Composite ZnO/Ag nanoparticles have been formed via the photocatalytic reduction of silver nitrate over the ZnO nanocrystals, their optical, electrophysical and photochemical properties have been investigated. Mie theory has been applied to analyze the structure of the absorption spectra of ZnO/Ag nanocomposite. The irradiation effects upon the optical properties of ZnO/Ag nanostructure have been investigated. It has been found that the irradiation of ZnO/Ag nanoparticles results in electrons accumulation by both the semiconductor and the metallic components of the nanocomposite. It has been found that silver nitrate can be photochemically deposited onto the surface of ZnO nanoparticles under the illumination with the visible light in the presence of the sensitizer – methylene blue. Kinetics of the sensitized Ag(I) photoredution has been studied. It has been concluded that the key stage of this process is the electron injection from singlet-excited methylene blue molecule into ZnO nanoparticle.     

Slow light with symmetric gap plasmon guides with finite width metal claddings

We study the dispersion relation and the modes of a symmetric gap plasmon guide, where a dielectric planar slab is coated with finite metallic layers on both top and bottom. The finite conductivity of the metal is taken into account. The modes of the structure exhibit significant differences from those of dielectric waveguides with air or metal as the bounding media. Avoided level crossing phenomenon between the plasmon and the guided modes is shown to exist, leading to leaky modes. The structure sandwiched between two high index media is shown to lead to slow light in transmission. The group delay is shown to be larger for higher order modes.      

双层开口环的圆二色性数值研究

基于琼斯矩阵的推导提出一种金属手性纳米结构-双层开口环阵列结构，其开口方向扭转一定角度以破坏对称性，并应用有限元方法研究圆二色性（CD）特性.研究表明：在左旋圆偏振光与右旋圆偏振光的激发下，该结构表现出巨大差异使得CD产生，其CD值达到0.34.结构的电流分布表明，在短波长处，上下层圆环的等效偶极子耦合可形成反键模式，在长波长处，上下层圆环的等效偶极子耦合可形成成键模式，研究结构参数对CD的影响.理解圆二色的物理机制，并提供一种设计手性结构的方法.     

Composite‐Assisted Phase‐Matching: Efficient Wavelength Conversion in Nonlinear Optical Composite Materials Containing Metal Nanoparticles

A novel phase‐matching scheme which is based on the dispersion compensation in the nonlinear optical composite materials containing metal nanoparticles is proposed. Anomalous dispersion originating from the plasmon resonance in metal nanoparticles compensates the dispersion of the host nonlinear material, leading to the perfect phase‐matching and high efficiency of nonlinear optical wavelength conversion. The effectiveness of this approach is theoretically demonstrated, taking third‐order nonlinear processes such as the direct third‐harmonic generation and four‐wave mixing in ZnO composites containing silica‐core–silver‐shell nanoparticles as examples. The results show that with the proposed phase‐matching scheme, unprecedentedly high conversion efficiency can be obtained compared with preceding results in third‐order nonlinear optical solid‐state materials.     

Electrochemical tip-enhanced Raman Spectroscopy for microscopic studies of electrochemical interfaces

The review describes electrochemical applications of tip-enhanced Raman spectroscopy (TERS). These applications combine the merits of both scanning probe microscopy (SPM) and Raman spectroscopy, which enables us to simultaneously obtain high-resolution images of surface morphology and chemical information under the electrochemical environment. This review, first summarizes the pioneering work done on the TERS systems that operate in liquid and electrochemical environments, and then gives an overview of the typical instrumentation of electrochemical TERS (EC-TERS) based on electrochemical scanning tunneling microscopy (EC-STM). Furthermore, this review summarizes the advancements in EC-TERS studies of events that occur at the interfaces. These include potential dependent structural changes and electrochemical reactions. Finally, we discuss the current issues and future prospects of EC-TERS for microscopic studies of electrochemical interfaces.     

Translation-rotation coupling and heat transfer in orientationally-disordered phase of CCl4

The isochoric thermal conductivity of an orientationally-disordered phase of CCl₄ is analysed within a model in which heat is transferred by phonons and above the phonon mobility edge by ”diffusive” modes migrating randomly from site to site. The mobility edge ω₀ is found from the condition that the phonon mean-free path cannot become smaller than half the phonon wavelength. The contributions of phonon-phonon, one-, and two-phonon scattering to the total thermal resistance of solid CCl₄ are calcualted under the assumption that the different scattering mechanisms contribute additively. An increase in the isochoric thermal conductivity with temperature is explained by suppression of phonon scattering at rotational excitations due to a decrease in correlation in the rotation of neighbouring molecules.     

Periodic defect modes of one-dimensional crystals containing single-negative materials

The transmission properties of a one-dimensional (1D) photonic crystal containing two kinds of single-negative (permittivity or permeability negative) material with an inserted array of defects (RHM and LHM) were presented by the transfer matrix method (TMM). The dependence of the defect modes on the structure parameters was discussed by using the TMM. In contrast to the Bragg gaps, the properties (the central frequency and width of the gap) of zero effective phase (zero−φ_eff) and gap are invariant with a change in scale length and insensitive to the incident angles. The property of the periodic defect modes in the SNG host periodic structure was studied. It illustrates that the defect modes properties changed more by insert periodic defect than by single-media defect. The defect modes are sensitive to the parameters of the defect layers and the incident angle.     

Mass transport on adsorbate multilayers studied by surface plasmon polariton wave excitation

We excited surface-plasmon polariton waves (SPPW) on Cu(111) by coupling a monochromatic optical beam with a xenon multilayer thickness grating on the metal. The SPPW excitation was detected with an angle-resolved oblique-incidence reflectivity difference technique (OI-RD). The amplitude of the resonance OI-RD signal was a quadratic function of the grating modulation depth. By monitoring the decay of the resonance OI-RD signal as a function of time and temperature, we were able to study the mass transport of xenon that plays a key role in the annealing of a “rough” Xe multilayer crystalline film.     

Increasing the Affinity of an O-Antigen Polysaccharide Binding Site in Shigella flexneri Bacteriophage Sf6 Tailspike Protein

Broad and unspecific use of antibiotics accelerates spread of resistances. Sensitive and robust pathogen detection is thus important for a more targeted application. Bacteriophages contain a large repertoire of pathogen-binding proteins. These tailspike proteins (TSP) often bind surface glycans and represent a promising design platform for specific pathogen sensors. We analysed bacteriophage Sf6 TSP that recognizes the O-polysaccharide of dysentery-causing Shigella flexneri to develop variants with increased sensitivity for sensor applications. Ligand polyrhamnose backbone conformations were obtained from 2D ¹H,¹H-trNOESY NMR utilizing methine–methine and methine–methyl correlations. They agreed well with conformations obtained from molecular dynamics (MD), validating the method for further predictions. In a set of mutants, MD predicted ligand flexibilities that were in good correlation with binding strength as confirmed on immobilized S. flexneri O-polysaccharide (PS) with surface plasmon resonance. In silico approaches combined with rapid screening on PS surfaces hence provide valuable strategies for TSP-based pathogen sensor design.