No Arabic abstract
The strong-field control of plasmonic nanosystems opens up new perspectives for nonlinear plasmonic spectroscopy and petahertz electronics. Questions, however, remain regarding the nature of nonlinear light-matter interactions at sub-wavelength spatial and ultrafast temporal scales. Addressing this challenge, we investigated the strong-field control of the plasmonic response of Au nanoshells with a SiO$_2$ core to an intense laser pulse. We show that the photoelectron energy spectrum from these core-shell nanoparticles displays a striking transition between the weak and strong-field regime. This observed transition agrees with the prediction of our modified Mie-theory simulation that incorporates the nonlinear dielectric nanoshell response. The demonstrated intensity-dependent optical control of the plasmonic response in prototypical core-shell nanoparticles paves the way towards ultrafast switching and opto-electronic signal modulation with more complex nanostructures.
Using microemulsion methods, CoO-Pt core-shell nanoparticles (NPs), with diameters of nominally 4 nm, were synthesized and characterized by high-resolution transmission electron microscopy (HRTEM) and a suite of x-ray spectroscopies, including diffraction (XRD), absorption (XAS), absorption near-edge structure (XANES), and extended absorption fine structure (EXAFS), which confirmed the existence of CoO cores and pure Pt surface layers. Using a commercial magnetometer, the ac and dc magnetic properties were investigated over a range of temperature (2 K $leq$ T $leq$ 300 K), magnetic field ($leq$ 50 kOe), and frequency ($leq$ 1 kHz). The data indicate the presence of two different magnetic regimes whose onsets are identified by two maxima in the magnetic signals, with a narrow maximum centered at 6 K and a large one centered at 37 K. The magnetic responses in these two regimes exhibit different frequency dependences, where the maximum at high temperature follows a Vogel-Fulcher law, indicating a superparamagnetic (SPM) blocking of interacting nanoparticle moments and the maximum at low temperature possesses a power law response characteristic of a collective freezing of the nanoparticle moments in a superspin glass (SSG) state. This co-existence of blocking and freezing behaviors is consistent with the nanoparticles possessing an antiferromagnetically ordered core, with an uncompensated magnetic moment, and a magnetically disordered interlayer between CoO core and Pt shell.
We present a systematic study of core-shell Au/Fe_3O_4 nanoparticles produced by thermal decomposition under mild conditions. The morphology and crystal structure of the nanoparticles revealed the presence of Au core of <d> = (6.9pm 1.0) nm surrounded by Fe_3O_4 shell with a thickness of ~3.5 nm, epitaxially grown onto the Au core surface. The Au/Fe_3O_4 core-shell structure was demonstrated by high angle annular dark field scanning transmission electron microscopy analysis. The magnetite shell grown on top of the Au nanoparticle displayed a thermal blocking state at temperatures below T_B = 59 K and a relaxed state well above T_B. Remarkably, an exchange bias effect was observed when cooling down the samples below room temperature under an external magnetic field. Moreover, the exchange bias field (H_{EX}) started to appear at T~40 K and its value increased by decreasing the temperature. This effect has been assigned to the interaction of spins located in the magnetically disordered regions (in the inner and outer surface of the Fe_3O_4 shell) and spins located in the ordered region of the Fe_3O_4 shell.
Vacuum fluctuations are a fundamental feature of quantized fields. It is usually assumed that observations connected to vacuum fluctuations require a system well isolated from other influences. In this work, we demonstrate that effects of the quantum vacuum can already occur in simple colloidal nano-assemblies prepared by wet chemistry. We claim that the electromagnetic field fluctuations at the zero-point level saturate the absorption of dye molecules self-assembled at the surface of plasmonic nano-resonators. For this effect to occur, reaching the strong coupling regime between the plasmons and excitons is not required. This intriguing effect of vacuum-induced saturation (VISA) is discussed within a simple quantum optics picture and demonstrated by comparing the optical spectra of hybrid gold-core dye-shell nanorods to electromagnetic simulations.
Nanoparticles made of non-noble metals such as gallium have recently attracted significant attention due to promising applications in UV plasmonics. To date, experiments have mostly focused on solid and liquid pure gallium particles immobilized on solid substrates. However, for many applications, colloidal liquid-metal nanoparticle solutions are vital. Here, we experimentally demonstrate strong UV plasmonic resonances of eutectic gallium-indium (EGaIn) liquid-metal alloy nanoparticles suspended in ethanol. We rationalise experimental results through a theoretical model based on Mie theory. Our results contribute to the understanding of UV plasmon resonances in colloidal liquid-metal EGaIn nanoparticle suspensions. They will also enable further research into emerging applications of UV plasmonics in biomedical imaging, sensing, stretchable electronics, photoacoustics, and electrochemistry.
We present an atomistic model of a single nanoparticle with core/shell structure that takes into account its lattice strucutre and spherical geometry, and in which the values of microscopic parameters such as anisotropy and exchange constants can be tuned in the core, shell and interfacial regions. By means of Monte Carlo simulations of the hysteresis loops based on this model, we have determined the range of microscopic parameters for which loop shifts after field cooling can be observed. The study of the magnetic order of the interfacial spins for different particles sizes and values of the interfacial exchange coupling have allowed us to correlate the appearance of loop asymmetries and vertical displacements to the existence of a fraction of uncompensated spins at the shell interface that remain pinned during field cycling, offering new insight on the microscopic origin of the experimental phenomenology.