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In this article, an increase of 1-2 orders of magnitude in laser-induced breakdown spectroscopy (LIBS) signals was obtained by depositing silver nanoparticles on metal samples. Nanoparticle-enhanced LIBS (NELIBS) was found to be a robust and flexible tool for the chemical analysis of metals because the sample emission signal did not appear to be affected much by the size and concentration of deposited nanoparticles (NPs) within the ranges of 10 nm for diameter and 1 order of magnitude for concentration. On the other hand, preliminary NELIBS tests on insulators and semiconductors did not show any significant enhancement with respect to conventional LIBS. In this article, we present a detailed investigation of the fundamental features of NELIBS spectra, in addition to some examples of analytical applications to the quantitative analysis of metal alloys.

The use of graphene in a form of discontinuous flakes in polymer composites limits the full exploitation of the unique properties of graphene, thus requiring high filler loadings for achieving- for example- satisfactory electrical and mechanical properties. Herein centimetre-scale CVD graphene/polymer nanolaminates have been produced by using an iterative ‘lift-off/float-on’ process and have been found to outperform, for the same graphene content, state-of-the-art flake-based graphene polymer composites in terms of mechanical reinforcement and electrical properties. Most importantly these thin laminate materials show a high electromagnetic interference (EMI) shielding effectiveness, reaching 60 dB for a small thickness of 33 μm, and an absolute EMI shielding effectiveness close to 3·105 dB cm2 g−1 which is amongst the highest values for synthetic, non-metallic materials produced to date.

In this paper, nanoparticle enhanced laser-induced breakdown spectroscopy (NELIBS) was applied to the elemental chemical analysis of microdrops of solutions with analyte concentration at subppm level. The effect on laser ablation of the strong local enhancement of the electromagnetic field allows enhancing the optical emission signal up to more than 1 order of magnitude, enabling LIBS to quantify ppb concentration and notably decreasing the limit of detection (LOD) of the technique. At optimized conditions, it was demonstrated that NELIBS can reach an absolute LOD of few picograms for Pb and 0.2 pg for Ag. The effect of field enhancement in NELIBS was tested on biological solutions such as protein solutions and human serum, in order to improve the sensitivity of LIBS with samples where the formation and excitation of the plasma are not as efficient as with metals. Even in these difficult cases, a significant improvement with respect to conventional LIBS was observed.

In this paper, the new approach for Laser Induced Breakdown Spectroscopy (LIBS) based on nanoparticle\ud deposition on the sample surface is reviewed from both fundamental and application points of view. The\ud case of Nanoparticle-Enhanced LIBS (NELIBS) of metal samples is used for describing and discussing the\ud main causes of the emission signal enhancement. A set of test cases is presented, which shows\ud enhancements up to 1–2 orders of magnitude obtained using NELIBS with respect to LIBS. The feasibility\ud and potential of NELIBS are also discussed for several analytical applications, including analysis of\ud metallic samples, transparent samples and aqueous solution

Defective TiO2/C bulk heterostructures exhibit visible light photoresponsivity and remarkable H2 evolution rates under both UV and visible light irradiation.

Coding metasurfaces, composed of only two types of elements arranged according to a binary code, are attracting a steadily increasing interest in many application scenarios. In this study, we apply this concept to attain diffuse scattering at THz frequencies. Building up on previously derived theoretical results, we carry out a suboptimal metasurface design based on a simple, deterministic and computationally inexpensive algorithm that can be applied to arbitrarily large structures. For experimental validation, we fabricate and characterize three prototypes working at 1 THz, which, in accordance with numerical predictions, exhibit significant reductions of the radar cross-section, with reasonably good frequency and angular stability. Besides the radar-signature control, our results may also find potentially interesting applications to diffusive imaging, computational imaging, and (scaled to optical wavelengths) photovoltaics.

Enhancement of molecular band emission in laser-induced plasmas is important for improving sensitivity and limits of detection in molecular sensing and molecular isotope analysis. In this work we introduce the use of Nanoparticle Enhanced Laser Induced Breakdown (NELIBS) for the enhancement of molecular band emission in laser-induced plasmas, and study the underlying mechanisms responsible for the observed enhancement. The use of Ag nanoparticles leads to an order of magnitude enhancement for AlO (B2Σ+ → Χ+ Σ+) system emission from an Al-based alloy. We demonstrate that the mechanism responsible for the enhancement of molecular bands differs from that of atomic emission, and can be traced down to the increased number of atomic species in NELIBS which lead to AlO molecular formation. These findings showcase the potential of NELIBS as a simple and viable technology for enhancing molecular band emission in laser-induced plasmas