In this paper, we have utilized Au nanoring chains in an SiO₂ host to design certain T-and Y-structures, and expanded it to transport and split the electromagnetic energy in integrated nanophotonic devices operating at an optical communication band (λ≈1550  nm). We compared two structures and tried to choose the best one, ...

'Bottom up' type nanoparticle (NP) self-assembly is expected to provide facile routes to nanostructured materials for various, e.g. energy related applications. Despite progress in simulations and theories, structure prediction of self-assembled materials beyond simple model systems remains challenging. Here we utilize a field theory approach for predicting nanostructure of complex ...

In this paper, a graded SiN_x and SiO_xN_y structure is proposed as antireflection coatings deposited on top of amorphous silicon (α-Si) thin-film solar cell. The structural parameters are optimized by differential evolution in order to enhance the optical absorption of solar cells to the greatest degree. The optimal design result ...

We present the thermal analysis of liquid containing Al(2)O(3) nanoparticles in a microfluidic platform using an infrared camera. The small dimensions of the microchannel along with the low flow rates (less than 120 μl min(-1)) provide very low Reynolds numbers of less than 17.5, reflecting practical parameters for a microfluidic ...

Mode locking of solid-state lasers using metal nanocomposites as slow saturable absorbers (SAs) is studied theoretically. The derived equation for the transient nonlinear response of metal nanocomposites is based on the semiclassical two-temperature model. The model is confirmed experimentally by pump-probe measurements on Au nanoparticles (NPs). The theory was applied ...

It is known that surface-plasmon resonances of metallic nanoparticles can significantly enhance the field experienced by semiconductor quantum dots. In this paper we show that, when quantum dots are in the vicinity of metallic nanoparticles and interact with coherent light sources (laser fields), coherent exciton-plasmon coupling (quantum coherence effects) can ...

We show that metal nanoparticles can be used to improve the performance of super-resolution fluorescence nanoscopes based on stimulated-emission-depletion (STED). Compared with a standard STED nanoscope, we show theoretically a resolution improvement by more than an order of magnitude, or equivalently, depletion intensity reductions by more than two orders of ...

The development of nanoplasmonics has been tremendous during the past two decades, driven in part by the improvements in colloidal synthesis of nanocrystals and manipulation of nanoparticle surface functionalities. This has granted access not only to exquisite control over the morphology of nanoparticles but also to novel multiparticle nanostructures with ...

Lab-on-a-chip (LOC) platforms have become important tools for sample analysis and treatment with interest for DNA, protein and cells studies or diagnostics due to benefits such as the reduced sample volume, low cost, portability and the possibility to build new analytical devices or be integrated into conventional ones. These platforms ...

A surface plasmon is the coherent oscillation of the conduction band electrons. When a metal nanoparticle is excited to produce surface plasmons, incident light is both scattered and absorbed, giving rise to brilliant colors. One available technique for measuring these processes, ensemble extinction spectroscopy, only measures the sum of scattering ...

Owing to their novel optical properties, three-dimensional (3D) plasmonic nanostructures with reduced symmetry such as a nanocrescent and a nanocup have attracted considerable current interest in biophotonic imaging and sensing. However, their practical applications have been still limited since the colloidal synthesis of such structures that allows, in principle, for ...

Noble metal nanoparticles have excellent optical and chemical properties and are widely used in optics, sensors and biomedicines. The inherent characteristics of metal nanoparticles, particularly their size, play important roles in their applications. The ability to readily measure the size of single nanomaterials on-site is crucial to the rapid development ...

We investigate the photoconductance of gold nanoparticle arrays in the Coulomb blockade regime. Two-dimensional, hexagonal crystals of nanoparticles are produced by self-assembly. The nanoparticles are weakly coupled to their neighbors by a tunneling conductance. At low temperatures, the single electron charging energy of the nanoparticles dominates the conductance properties of ...

We report that a pyramid-shaped scanning probe microscopy tip has non-zero polarizability along the in-plane direction (perpendicular to the tip axis, z) at visible frequency. The in-plane polarizability enables the scattering-type scanning near-field optical microscopy (s-SNOM) to measure the in-plane field component around a plasmon-resonant nanoparticle. Because of the non-zero ...

Finite element analysis (FEA) is used to model nanoindentation by a rigid, spherically shaped indenter, axially indenting an elastic two phase polymer system comprised of a cylindrical nanoparticle of compliant polymer set in a semi-infinite matrix of stiffer polymer. The cylindrical nanoparticle is normal to the sample surface. An axisymmetric ...

Heating of composite plasmon-resonant nanoparticles (spherical gold nanoshells) under pulse laser illumination is considered. The numerical solution of the time-dependent heat conduction equation accounting for spatial inhomogeneities of absorbed laser radiation is performed. Important features of temperature kinetics and thermal flux inside nanoparticles are analyzed. Possible applications of the observed ...

Transmembrane transport: A combination of photon and fluorescence correlation spectroscopies is used to study the internalization of nanoparticles into a minimal model system based on poly(dimethylsiloxane)-block-poly(2-methyloxazoline) vesicles. These techniques provide information about the kinetics and dynamics of this transport process in real time.

In comparison to the complexities of the body, its organs, its normal and aberrant cells, many nanoparticles will appear to be relatively simple objects. This view is deceptive because the physicochemical properties of nanosystems, although quite well understood on the basis of material science, surface science and colloid theory, are ...

We present a generic technique allowing size-based all-optical sorting of gold nanoparticles. Optical forces acting on metallic nanoparticles are substantially enhanced when they are illuminated at a wavelength near the plasmon resonance, as determined by the particle's geometry. Exploiting these resonances, we realise sorting in a system of two counter-propagating ...

Using a low power green laser, we have demonstrated a rate acceleration of ∼2-fold for the hydrolysis of methyl parathion by irradiating the plasmon absorption band of Au nanoparticles capped with a Cu(bpy) catalyst.

We present a microscopic theory that describes the ordering of two distinct ligands on the surface of a facetted nanoparticle. The theory predicts that when one type of ligand is significantly bulkier than all others, the larger ligands preferentially align themselves along the edges and vertices of the nanoparticle. Monte ...

The dependence on laser fluence and laser pulse duration of size, size distribution and concentration of gold nanoparticles synthesized by laser ablation in liquid media was investigated. It was demonstrated that increasing laser energy from 1 to 5 mJ/pulse enhances the ablation rate by a factor of 100. The behavior of ...

Matter structured on a length scale comparable to or smaller than the wavelength of light can exhibit unusual optical properties. Particularly promising components for such materials are metal nanostructures, where structural alterations provide a straightforward means of tailoring their surface plasmon resonances and hence their interaction with light. But the ...

In the paper, we present a novel single particle method, named as spatially resolved scattering correlation spectroscopy (SRSCS) based on a total internal reflection (TIR) configuration and strong resonance light scattering (RLS) of silver nanoparticles (AgNPs). The principle of SRSCS is similar to fluorescence correlation spectroscopy (FCS) and it is ...

We investigated the properties of nematic liquid crystal device (NLC) doped with titanium (Ti) nanoparticle (~100nm). The electro-optic (EO) properties of LCs changed according to Ti nanoparticle doping concentration. Ti nanoparticles in the NLC cells focused the electric field flux and strengthened the electric field. Further, Ti nanoparticles in NLC ...

Conventional semi-transparent photovoltaics suffer from an inherent tradeoff between the amount of visible light transmitted versus absorbed, reducing energy conversion efficiency when higher transparency is desired. As a solution to lift this tradeoff, we propose a wavelength and angular selective reflector and demonstrate a potential implementation utilizing high aspect ratio ...

Abstract We describe a comprehensive optimization study culminating in a standardized and validated approach for the preparation of titanium dioxide (TiO2) nanoparticle dispersions in relevant biological media. This study utilizes a TiO2 reference nanomaterial based on a commercially available powder that has been widely examined in both acute and chronic ...

Lasing action from a dispersion of nanoparticles is reported for the first time to our knowledge. The nanoparticles are Nd₂O₃ modified with dimethyldichlorosilane (DMDCS) in dimethylsulfoxide. The laser was pumped with a pulsed laser at 802 nm and yielded 2.7 mJ with a slope efficiency of 50%. This was compared ...

We describe a functional imaging paradigm that uses photothermal optical coherence tomography (PT-OCT) to detect indocyanine green (ICG)-encapsulated biocompatible poly(lactic-co-glycolic) acid (PLGA) nanoparticles embedded in highly scattering tissue phantoms with high resolution and sensitivity. The ICG-loaded PLGA nanoparticles were fabricated using a modified emulsification solvent diffusion method. With a 20 ...

In the present letter we demonstrate how the design of metallic nanoparticle arrays with large electric field enhancement can be performed using the basic paradigm of engineering, namely the optimization of a well-defined objective function. Such optimization is carried out by coupling a genetic algorithm with the analytical multiparticle Mie ...

We show that sensing in the nonlinear optical regime using multipolar surface plasmon resonances is more sensitive in comparison to sensing in the linear optical regime. Mie theory, and its extension to the second harmonic generation from a metallic nanosphere, is used to describe multipolar second harmonic generation from silver ...

We present a novel concept for optical spectroscopy called nonlinear correlation spectroscopy (NLCS). NLCS analyses coherent field fluctuations of the second and third harmonic light generated by diffusing nanoparticles. Particles based on non-centrosymmetric nonlinear materials such as KNbO₃ show a strong second as well as third harmonic response. The method ...

We study modulational instability in nonlinear arrays of subwavelength metallic nanoparticles and analyze numerically nonlinear scenarios of the instability development. We demonstrate that modulational instability can lead to the formation of regular periodic or quasiperiodic modulations of the polarization. We reveal that such nonlinear nanoparticle arrays can support long-lived standing ...

We propose an optoelectronic model to investigate polymer solar cells with plasmonic nanoparticles. The optical properties of the plasmonic active layers, approximated by the effective medium theory, are combined with the organic semiconductor model. The simulation suggests the enhancement on short-circuit photocurrent is due to light concentration and redistribution by ...

A fully quantum mechanical investigation using time-dependent density functional theory reveals that the field enhancement in a coupled nanoparticle dimer can be strongly affected by nonlinear effects. We show that both classical as well as linear quantum mechanical descriptions of the system fail even for moderate incident light intensities. An ...

Fluorescence resonance energy transfer (FRET) involving a semiconductor nanoparticle (NP) acting as a donor, attached to multiple acceptors, is becoming a common tool for sensing, bio-labeling and energy transfer applications. Such nano-systems, whose dimensions are in the range of FRET interactions, exhibit unique characteristics which are related to the shape ...

The diffusion-influenced translocation behavior of individual nanoparticles upon passage through a conical nanopore has been elucidated by using a pressure-reversal, resistive-pulse technique, as reported by Lan and White in this issue of ACS Nano. We outline here some recent progress in conical nanopore analysis, and we present some prospects for ...

Metallic nanoparticles are known to enhance nonlinear optical processes due to a local enhancement of the optical field. This strategy has been proposed to enhance downconversion in thin film solar cells, but has various disadvantages, among which is the fact that the enhancement occurs only in a tiny volume close ...

ABSTRACT: Based on cavity quantum electrodynamics (QED), we investigate the light-matter interaction between surface plasmon polaritons (SPP) in a metal nanoparticle (MNP) and the excitons in semiconductor quantum dots (SQDs) in an SQD-MNP coupled system. We propose a quantum transformation method to strongly reveal the exciton energy shift and the ...

Optical properties of InGaN/GaN multi-quantum-well (MQW) structures with a nanolayer of Ag/SiO₂ nanoparticle (NP) on top were studied. Modeling and optical absorption (OA) measurements prove that the NPs form localized surface plasmons (LSP) structure with a broad OA band peaked near 440-460 nm and the fringe electric field extending down ...

We analyze nonlinear effects in optically driven arrays of nonlinear metallic nanoparticles. We demonstrate that such plasmonic systems are characterized by a bistable response, and they can support the propagation of dissipative switching waves (or plasmonic kinks) connecting the states with different polarization. We study numerically the properties of such ...

The transparent bulk polymer nanocomposites blended with rare earth nanoparticles are prepared through the radical polymerization of trimethylolpropane trimethylacrylate (TMPTMA). These materials produce continuously tunable second harmonic (SH) radiation under illumination of a wide spectral range of fundamental waves (750-850 nm). The SHG efficiency can be controlled well by altering ...

We theoretically investigated optical third-order nonlinearity of a coherently coupled exciton-plasmon hybrid system under a strong control field with a weak probe field. The analytic formulas of exciton population and effective third-order optical susceptibility of the hybrid of a metal nanoparticle (MNP) and a semiconductor quantum dot (SQD) were deduced. ...

We explore a new application of optical tweezers for ultrasensitive detection of sound waves in liquid media. Position tracking of a single gold nanoparticle confined in a three-dimensional optical trap is used to readout acoustic vibrations at a sound power level down to -60  dB, causing a ∼90  μeV increase in kinetic ...

Studies examining the histopathological changes that occur in human skin following fractional laser treatment have been performed mainly in animals or abdominal tissue prior to abdominoplasty. This study looks at the effect of double pulse fractional CO(2) laser compared to single pulse treatments to assess differences in tissue injury in ...

In this review, two carrier systems based on nanotechnology for real-time sensing of biologically relevant analytes (ions or other biological molecules) inside cells in a non-invasive way are discussed. One system is based on inorganic nanoparticles with an organic coating, whereas the second system is based on organic microcapsules. The ...

Electromagnetic coupling between plasmonic resonances in metallic nanoparticles allows for engineering of the optical response and generation of strong localized near-fields. Classical electrodynamics fails to describe this coupling across sub-nanometer gaps, where quantum effects become important owing to non-local screening and the spill-out of electrons. However, full quantum simulations are ...

Nanoparticle Cluster Arrays (NCAs) are a class of electromagnetic materials that comprise chemically defined nanoparticles assembled into clusters of defined size in an extended deterministic arrangement. NCAs are fabricated through integration of chemically synthesized building blocks into predefined patterns using a hybrid top-down/bottom-up fabrication approach that overcomes some of the ...

Applications of metallic nanoparticles are based on their strongly size-dependent optical properties. We present a method for combining optical tweezers with dark field microscopy that allows measurement of localised surface plasmon resonance (LSPR) spectra on single isolated nanoparticles without compromising the strength of the optical trap. Using this spectroscopic information ...

Disk-shaped metal nanoparticles on high-index substrates can support resonant surface plasmon polariton (SPP) modes at the interface between the particle and the substrate. We demonstrate that this new conceptual model of nanoparticle scattering allows clear predictive abilities, beyond the dipole model. As would be expected from the nature of the ...