Mapping the plasmonic response of gold nanoparticles embedded in TiO₂thin films

Abstract

We present the mapping of the plasmonic properties of gold nanoparticles that are embedded in a TiO2 thin film deposited over two different substrates, glass and silicon. An improved electron energy-loss spectroscopy (EELS) imaging technique was used to extract plasmon maps with nanometre resolution. Several representative cases of randomly dispersed NPs have been examined to carefully evaluate surrounding effects on the optical response of such nanostructured material. Data were compared to analytical calculations and showed good agreement. These results validate previous structural and far-field optical results and provide a clear description of the optical phenomena that take place at a nanometre scale in these materials. They are of primary importance for enlightening the way to the fabrication of thin film materials including metallic nanostructures for photovoltaic applications.

Programmable Atom Equivalents: Atomic Crystallization as a Framework for Synthesizing Nanoparticle Superlattices

“…Electrical behavior in atomic systems is governed by electron–lattice interactions within the material, but materials with coupled capacitive and inductive subunits can be used to design collective excitation behaviors (Figure ) . Macroscale antenna arrays have utilized these concepts to manipulate electromagnetic fields in exotic ways, such as the split‐ring resonator arrays to generate negative refractive‐index surfaces enabling stealth planes to remain undetected by radar .…”

Plasmonic properties of aluminium nanowires in amorphous silicon

“…Such energy transfer can result in an observable broadening of the plasmon peaks in the EEL spectrum [22]. Fully embedded particles have been investigated with EELS before, however their plasmon energies were below the band gap of the matrix [23,24]. In this paper, we present the plasmonic properties of Al nanowires (AlNWs) embedded in an amorphous Si matrix (a − Si) by high resolution EELS using a scanning TEM (STEM) and modelling.…”