The practical efficacy of technologically promising metals for use in ultraviolet plasmonics (3−6 eV) is assessed by an exhaustive numerical analysis. This begins with estimates of the near-and far-field electromagnetic enhancement factors of isolated hemispherical and spherical metallic nanoparticles deposited on typical dielectric substrates like sapphire, from which the potential of each metal for plasmonic applications may be ascertained. The ultraviolet plasmonic behavior of aluminum, chromium, copper, gallium, indium, magnesium, palladium, platinum, rhodium, ruthenium, titanium, and tungsten was compared with the well-known behavior of gold and silver in the visible. After exploring this behavior for each metal as a function of nanoparticle shape and size, the deleterious effect caused by the metal's native oxide is considered, and the potential for applications such as surface-enhanced Raman spectroscopy, accelerated photodegradation and photocatalysis is addressed.

The corneal hysteresis and corneal resistance factor values were significantly lower in keratoconic eyes than in post-LASIK eyes. Future work is needed to determine whether these differences are useful in detecting keratoconus when other diagnostic tests are equivocal.

Abstract:The ultraviolet (UV) range presents new challenges for plasmonics, with interesting applications ranging from engineering to biology. In previous research, gallium, aluminum, and magnesium were found to be very promising UV plasmonic metals. However, a native oxide shell surrounds nanostructures of these metals that affects their plasmonic response. Here, through a nanoparticle-oxide core-shell model, we present a detailed electromagnetic analysis of how oxidation alters the UV-plasmonic response of spherical or hemisphere-on-substrate nanostructures made of those metals by analyzing the spectral evolution of two parameters: the absorption efficiency (far-field analysis) and the enhancement of the local intensity averaged over the nanoparticle surface (near-field analysis).

Microincision cataract surgery did not degrade the optical quality of the cornea or induce a modification in corneal astigmatism, including the axis.