We present here an original process combining top-down and bottom-up approaches by annealing a thin gold film evaporated onto a hole template made by etching a PS-PMMA copolymer film. Such process allows a better control of the gold nanoparticle size distribution which provides a sharper localized surface plasmon resonance. This makes such route appealing for sensing applications since the figure of merit of the Au nanoparticles obtained after thermal evaporation is more than doubled. Such process could besides allow tuning the localized surface plasmon resonance by using copolymer with various molecular weights and thus be attractive for surface enhanced raman spectroscopy.
The radiative heat transfer between gold nanoparticle layers is presented using the coupled dipole method. Gold nanoparticles are modelled as effective electric and magnetic dipoles interacting via electromagnetic fluctuations. The effect of higher-order multipoles is implemented in the expression of electric polarizability to calculate the interactions at short distances. Our findings show that the near-field radiation reduces as the radius of the nanoparticles is increased. Also, the magnetic dipole contribution to the heat exchange becomes more important for larger particles. When one layer is displayed in parallel with respect to the other layer, the near-field heat transfer exhibits oscillatory-like features due to the influence of the individual nanostructures. Further details about the effect of the nanoparticles size are also discussed.
We report here an original single-step process for synthesis and self-organization of gold colloids by simply incorporating gold salts into a solution prepared with Polystyrene (PS) - Polymethylmethacrylate (PMMA) copolymer, thiolated PS and Propylene Glycol Methyl Ether Acetate (PGMEA) as solvent. The spin-coating and annealing of this solution allows then the formation of PS domains. Depending on the polymer concentration of the as-prepared solution, there can be either one or several gold nanoparticles (NPs) per PS domains. For high concentration of gold nanoparticles in PS domains, the coupling between plasmonic nanoparticles leads to the observation of second peak in the optical extinction spectrum. Such collective effect could be relevant for the development of optical strain sensors in the next future.
Optical nanoantennas are a novel tool to investigate previously unattainable dimensions in the nanocosmos. Just like their radio-frequency equivalents, nanoantennas enhance the light-matter interaction in their feed gap. Antenna enhancement of small signals promises to open a new regime in linear and nonlinear spectroscopy on the nanoscale. Without antennas especially the nonlinear spectroscopy of single nanoobjects is very demanding. Here, we present for the first time antenna-enhanced ultrafast nonlinear optical spectroscopy. In particular, we utilize the antenna to determine the nonlinear transient absorption signal of a single gold nanoparticle caused by mechanical breathing oscillations. We increase the signal amplitude by an order of magnitude which is in good agreement with our analytical and numerical models. Our method will find applications in linear and nonlinear spectroscopy of nanoobjects, ranging from single protein binding events via nonlinear tensor elements to the limits of continuum mechanics.
Monolayers of transition metal dichalcogenides (TMDCs) have emerged as new optoelectronic materials in the two dimensional (2D) limit, exhibiting rich spin-valley interplays, tunable excitonic effects, and strong light-matter interactions. An essential yet undeveloped ingredient for many photonic applications is the manipulation of its light emission. Here we demonstrate the control of excitonic light emission from monolayer tungsten diselenide (WSe2) in an integrated photonic structure, achieved by transferring one monolayer onto a photonic crystal (PhC) with a cavity. In addition to the observation of greatly enhanced (~60 times) photoluminescence of WSe2 and an effectively coupled cavity-mode emission, we are able to redistribute the emitted photons both polarly and azimuthally in the far field through designing PhC structures, as revealed by momentum-resolved microscopy. A 2D optical antenna is thus constructed. Our work suggests a new way of manipulating photons in hybrid 2D photonics, important for future energy efficient optoelectronics and 2D nano-lasers.
In this work, optimized size distribution and optical properties in colloidal synthesis of gold nanoparticles (GNPs) were obtained using a proposed ultrasonic Tuerkevich-Frens method. The effect of three ultrasound (20 kHz) irradiation powers has been analyzed as size and shape control parameter. The GNPs colloidal solutions were obtained from chloroauric acid (HAuCl$_{4}$) and trisodium citrate ($rm C_{6}H_{5}Na_{3}O_{7}cdot 2H_{2}O$) under continuous irradiation for 1 hour without any heat or stirring. The surface plasmon resonance (SPR) was monitored in the UV-Vis spectra every 10 minutes to found the optimal time for localized SPR wavelength ($lambda_{rm LSPR}$) and the 210 sample procedure reduces the $lambda_{rm LSPR}$ localization to 20 minutes, while 150 and 60 samples show $lambda_{rm LSPR}$ in 60 minutes. The nucleation and growth of GNPs showed changes in shape and size distribution, which were associated with physical (cavitation, temperature) and chemical (radical generation, pH) conditions in the solution. The results showed quasispherical GNPs as pentakis dodecahedron ($lambda_{rm LSPR}$=560 nm), triakis icosahedron ($lambda_{rm LSPR}$=535 nm), and tetrakis hexahedron ($lambda_{rm LSPR}$= 525 nm) in a size range from 12-16 nm. US irradiation induced a disproportionation process, electrons of AuCl$_{2}^-$ rapidly exchanged through the gold surface. After AuCl$_{4}^-$ and Cl$^-$ are desorbed and a complex tetrachloroaurate is recycled for the two-electron reduction by citrate, aurophilic interaction between complexes AuCl$_{2}^-$, electrons exchange and gold seeds, the deposition of new gold atoms on the surface promoting the growth of GNPs. These mechanisms are enhanced by the cavitation effects and transmitted energy into the solution, showing that the plasmonic response from our nanoparticles can be tuned with this simple method and minimum intrumentation.