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In this work, the performance of gold nanoislands was investigated for Localized Surface Plasmon Resonance (LSPR) and Surface Enhanced Raman Spectroscopy (SERS) applications. Nanoislands were generated by thermally annealing thin layers of gold (having thickness in the 6-12 nm range), which was previously deposited by vacuum thermal evaporation onto glass substrates. Gold nanoparticles (AuNP) were evaluated based on their plasmonic and SERS performance and morphological properties. Scanning Electron Microscopy (SEM) was used to measure the average particle size and average interparticle distance in order to correlate them with the obtained plasmonic/Raman capabilities. The technological parameters of nanoisland fabrication for optimal performances were also determined.

A smooth to fractal transition of the corrosion front has been observed during two-dimensional pitting of Al thin films. The propagation of the initially smooth front ceased spontaneously, leaving behind a self-similar coastline with fractal dimension D f ϭ1.33Ϯ0.01. The roughening transition can be interpreted within the framework of the spreading bond percolation model with trapping. Quantitative agreement has been found between model calculations and the dynamic exponents characterizing the temporal behavior of the propagation velocity as well as the roughness of the front.

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The basic equation of stellar statistics connects the probability density function of a measurable quantity with the probability density of two variables, which cannot be observed directly, by the Bayes theorem of conditional probabilities. The resulting relation is a Fredholm-type integral equation of the first kind. If the two background variables are statistically independent we recover the convolution equation. The analytical solution based on the Fourier transformation is very sensitive to high-frequency noise. Eddington's solution attempts to find the unknown function in form of a series Sigma gamma jh(i)(z). Malmquist's method computes the conditional probability of the unknown variable assuming that the observed variable is given. The statistical aspect of the problem is expressed if one uses Lucy's algorithm which is a particular form of the more general EM algorithm. Dolan's matrix method solves numerically the matrix equation which approximates the integral equation. Methods are superior which retain the true statistical nature of the problem.

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