Infrared optical investigations of α-(BEDT-TTF)2I3 have been performed in the spectral range from 80 to 8000 cm −1 down to temperatures as low as 10 K by applying hydrostatic pressure. In the metallic state, T > 135 K, we observe a 50% increase in the Drude contribution as well as the mid-infrared band due to the growing intermolecular orbital overlap with pressure up to 11 kbar. In the ordered state, T < TCO, we extract how the electronic charge per molecule varies with temperature and pressure: Transport and optical studies demonstrate that charge order and metalinsulator transition coincide and consistently yield a linear decrease of the transition temperature TCO by 8 − 9 K/kbar. The charge disproportionation ∆ρ diminishes by 0.017 e/kbar and the optical gap ∆ between the bands decreases with pressure by -47 cm −1 /kbar. In our high-pressure and low-temperature experiments, we do observe contributions from the massive charge carriers as well as from massless Dirac electrons to the low-frequency optical conductivity, however, without being able to disentangle them unambiguously.

We describe some fundamental properties of localized plasmon polaritons in metallic nanoparticles, and discuss their use for enhancing solar cells efficiency by photon management. Two scenarios are detailed. The first is an example of spectral photon management utilizing localized plasmon polaritons to increase the up‐conversion efficiency of ions embedded in a glass matrix comprising metallic nanoparticles. The second example details quantitatively how the strong field enhancement and the large scattering cross‐section of plasmons at the resonance wavelength can be employed directly to enhance light absorption in thin‐film solar cells. Preliminary experimental results on tailoring appropriate materials are also shown. (© 2008 WILEY‐VCH Verlag GmbH & Co. KGaA, Weinheim)

Electron cloud mitigation is an essential requirement for high-intensity proton circular accelerators. Among other solutions, laser engineered surface structures (LESS) present the advantages of having potentially a very low secondary electron yield (SEY) and allowing simple scalability for mass production. Two copper liners with LESS have been manufactured and successfully tested by monitoring the electron cloud current in a dipole magnet in the SPS accelerator at CERN during the 2016 run. In this paper we report on these results as well as the detailed experiments carried out on samples-such as the SEYand topography studies-which led to an optimized treatment in view of the SPS test and future possible use in the HL-LHC.

The influence of microgeometries on the Secondary Electron Yield (SEY) of surfaces is investigated. Laser written structures of different aspect ratio (height to width) on a copper surface tuned the SEY of the surface and reduced its value to less than unity. The aspect ratio of microstructures was methodically controlled by varying the laser parameters. The results obtained corroborate a recent theoretical model of SEY reduction as a function of the aspect ratio of microstructures. Nanostructures - which are formed inside the microstructures during the interaction with the laser beam - provided further reduction in SEY comparable to that obtained in the simulation of structures which were coated with an absorptive layer suppressing secondary electron emission.

Electron cloud (e-cloud) mitigation is an essential requirement for proton circular accelerators in order to guarantee beam stability at a high intensity and limit the heat load on cryogenic sections. Laser-engineered surface structuring is considered a credible process to reduce the secondary electron yield (SEY) of the surfaces facing the beam, thus suppressing the e-cloud phenomenon within the high luminosity upgrade of the LHC collider at CERN (HL-LHC). In this study, the SEY of Cu samples with different oxidation states, obtained either through laser treatment in air or in different gas atmospheres or via thermal annealing, has been measured at room and cryogenic temperatures and correlated with the surface composition measured by x-ray photoelectron spectroscopy. It was observed that samples treated in nitrogen display the lowest and more stable SEY values, correlated with the lower surface oxidation. In addition, the surface oxide layer of air-treated samples charges upon electron exposure at a low temperature, leading to fluctuations in the SEY.