Optically-active metastable defects in volumetric nanoplasmonic composites

Abstract

Metastable defects in semiconductor materials have been well known for decades, but have only recently started to attract attention for their potential applications in information technology. Here, we describe active and passive nanoplasmonic materials with optically active metastable defects that can be switched on or off by cooling with or without laser illumination, respectively. To the best of our knowledge, this is the first report of metastable defects in either passive or active nanoplasmonic materials, and, more generally, in non-semiconducting materials. The nanocomposites are made of a sodium-boron-phosphate glass matrix doped with silver nanoparticles (nAg) or co-doped with nAg and Er3+ ions by NanoParticle Direct Doping method. We further show that the different origins of the two types of defect-related luminescence behaviour are attributable to either a metal-glass defect (MG1) or a metal-glass-rare-earth ion defect (MGR1). Such materials could potentially be used for data writing and erasing using laser illumination with a ‘tight’ focus such as direct laser writing.

Semiconducting eutectic materials for photocatalysis and photoelectrochemistry applications: a perspective

“…Also, resonance at visible and infrared wavelengths in plasmonic nanocomposites by doping has been achieved using the m-pulling method that makes this method as one of the intriguing methods to grow PEC materials. 153,154 In parallel, theoretical approaches using the density functional theory calculations were also made to understand the effect of dopants in TiO 2 photoanodes and to find the best candidate among all dopants. 155,156 Their findings pointed out iodine as the best dopant due to its incorporation at Ti sites in the TiO 2 lattice and found better PEC efficiency than the undoped TiO 2 .…”

“…Also, resonance at visible and infrared wavelengths in plasmonic nanocomposites by doping has been achieved using the μ-pulling method that makes this method as one of the intriguing methods to grow PEC materials. 153,154…”

Modeling Optical Materials at the Single Scatterer Level: The Transition from Homogeneous to Heterogeneous Materials

“…In fact, optical 3D nanocomposites are a highly diverse material class that can exhibit a wide range of novel properties of which we are just beginning to develop a deeper understanding. [ 75–80 ] As for the design of dispersion‐engineered nanocomposites, the finding that nanoparticles' sizes must be below opens up new possibilities for tailoring the effective refractive index that have never been explored. This is because, for applications that span the entire visible spectrum, these sizes are within the quantum dot regime, in which the nanoparticles' electronic transitions can be tailored by varying their size and surface.…”

Functionalization of Phosphate and Tellurite Glasses and Spherical Whispering Gallery Mode Microresonators

“…This result demonstrates that the silanization and bioconjugation may be useful to immobilize antibodies containing primary amines on the surface of easily fabricated phosphate and tellurite glass-based microspheres, especially NAP and TZN-80. The low melting points of these glasses enable easy doping of these materials with optically active nanoparticles using physical methods. − As such, they can act as active lasers for sensitive and selective biosensors in WGM-based sensing devices . These kinds of active WGM resonators are already used in (i) barcode-type cell tagging and tracking and (ii) DNA, , single nanoparticle, and virus detection .…”

“…In this regard, phosphate and tellurite glasses are excellent candidates for fabricating WGM MRs . Low melting points of these glasses enable easy doping with various kinds of optically active elements by using a nanoparticle direct doping method (NPDD). − …”