Although gold is the subject of one of the most ancient themes of investigation in science, its renaissance now leads to an exponentially increasing number of publications, especially in the context of emerging nanoscience and nanotechnology with nanoparticles and self-assembled monolayers (SAMs). We will limit the present review to gold nanoparticles (AuNPs), also called gold colloids. AuNPs are the most stable metal nanoparticles, and they present fascinating aspects such as their assembly of multiple types involving materials science, the behavior of the individual particles, size-related electronic, magnetic and optical properties (quantum size effect), and their applications to catalysis and biology. Their promises are in these fields as well as in the bottom-up approach of nanotechnology, and they will be key materials and building block in the 21st century. Whereas the extraction of gold started in the 5th millennium B.C. near Varna (Bulgaria) and reached 10 tons per year in Egypt around 1200-1300 B.C. when the marvelous statue of Touthankamon was constructed, it is probable that “soluble” gold appeared around the 5th or 4th century B.C. in Egypt and China. In antiquity, materials were used in an ecological sense for both aesthetic and curative purposes. Colloidal gold was used to make ruby glass 293 Chem. Rev. 2004, 104, 293−346

Gold nanoparticles: assembly, supramolecular chemistry, quantum-size-related properties, and applications toward biology, catalysis, and nanotechnology.

Surface plasmons are waves that propagate along the surface of a conductor. By altering the structure of a metal's surface, the properties of surface plasmons--in particular their interaction with light--can be tailored, which offers the potential for developing new types of photonic device. This could lead to miniaturized photonic circuits with length scales that are much smaller than those currently achieved. Surface plasmons are being explored for their potential in subwavelength optics, data storage, light generation, microscopy and bio-photonics.

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Surface plasmon subwavelength optics

Deposits of clastic carbonate-dominated (calciclastic) sedimentary slope systems in the rock record have been identified mostly as linearly-consistent carbonate apron deposits, even though most ancient clastic carbonate slope deposits fit the submarine fan systems better. Calciclastic submarine fans are consequently rarely described and are poorly understood. Subsequently, very little is known especially in mud-dominated calciclastic submarine fan systems. Presented in this study are a sedimentological core and petrographic characterisation of samples from eleven boreholes from the Lower Carboniferous of Bowland Basin (Northwest England) that reveals a >250 m thick calciturbidite complex deposited in a calciclastic submarine fan setting. Seven facies are recognised from core and thin section characterisation and are grouped into three carbonate turbidite sequences. They include: 1) Calciturbidites, comprising mostly of highto low-density, wavy-laminated bioclast-rich facies; 2) low-density densite mudstones which are characterised by planar laminated and unlaminated muddominated facies; and 3) Calcidebrites which are muddy or hyper-concentrated debrisflow deposits occurring as poorly-sorted, chaotic, mud-supported floatstones. These

Phd by thesis

The optical properties of metal nanoparticles have long been of interest in physical chemistry, starting with Faraday's investigations of colloidal gold in the middle 1800s. More recently, new lithographic techniques as well as improvements to classical wet chemistry methods have made it possible to synthesize noble metal nanoparticles with a wide range of sizes, shapes, and dielectric environments. In this feature article, we describe recent progress in the theory of nanoparticle optical properties, particularly methods for solving Maxwell's equations for light scattering from particles of arbitrary shape in a complex environment. Included is a description of the qualitative features of dipole and quadrupole plasmon resonances for spherical particles; a discussion of analytical and numerical methods for calculating extinction and scattering cross-sections, local fields, and other optical properties for nonspherical particles; and a survey of applications to problems of recent interest involving triangula...

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The Optical Properties of Metal Nanoparticles: The Influence of Size, Shape, and Dielectric Environment

The emerging field of plasmonics has yielded methods for guiding and localizing light at the nanoscale, well below the scale of the wavelength of light in free space. Now plasmonics researchers are turning their attention to photovoltaics, where design approaches based on plasmonics can be used to improve absorption in photovoltaic devices, permitting a considerable reduction in the physical thickness of solar photovoltaic absorber layers, and yielding new options for solar-cell design. In this review, we survey recent advances at the intersection of plasmonics and photovoltaics and offer an outlook on the future of solar cells based on these principles.

Plasmonics for improved photovoltaic devices

The transmission of light along the surface normal through an air-quartz-glass interface covered with a periodic array of thin, rectangular gold patches has been studied over the visible to infrared range. The various structures that are observed can be qualitatively understood as arising from standing-wave resonances set by the size and surroundings of the metal patches. A method-of-moments calculational scheme provides simulations in good quantitative agreement with the data. It is shown how the standing-wave picture provides a useful conceptual framework to understand and exploit such systems.

Optical resonances in periodic surface arrays of metallic patches.

We analyze the optical properties of m-sized rings of gold nanoparticles by the combination of extinction spectroscopy, surface enhanced Raman scattering SERS spectroscopy and microscopic dark field imaging in two variants. The imaging process relies on either SERS from methylene blue dye molecules adsorbed on the nanoparticles or elastically scattered light. Whereas elastically scattered light images are governed by the coherence and intensity of the light scattered from the particles, SERS images reflect the optical near field of the particles averaged incoherently over a surface area corresponding to the point spread function of the microscope. From the analysis of the extinction spectra, scattered light and SERS images, we find that near field interaction of the single gold nanoparticles in the rings plays a minor role. Both scattered light and SERS images are well reproduced by simple model calculations. Due to the different signal generation and coherence properties, the combination of both imaging methods is a useful means in the characterization of optical properties of nanostructured metal surfaces.

https://www.researchgate.net/profile/Georges_Levi/publication/228662636_Raman_scattering_images_and_spectra_of_gold_ring_arrays/links/0fcfd50cee8ec60748000000.pdf

Raman scattering images and spectra of gold ring arrays

By using an elastomer as dielectric medium in a parallel plate capacitor, the attractive forces between the differently charged electrodes strongly compress that layer, representing a special type of electrostrictive effect. With an optical interference technique at the metal-insulator-metal layer system we studied the temporal behaviour of this mechanical deformation. We show that the deformation can be enhanced when the capacitor is laterally structured in order to allow the elastomer volume between the electrodes to move laterally, resulting in typical response times below 1 ms. The elastomer together with the metal electrodes is a metal-insulator-metal optical waveguide, whose mode properties can be tuned by electrically controlled mechanical thickness changes, suggesting applications for low-price electro–optical modulators with response speeds comparable to thermo–optical polymer modulators but with much smaller size.

Electrically actuated elastomers for electro–optical modulators

Laboratoire de Physique, Optique Submicronique, Universite´de Bourgogne, Boite Postale 47870, F-21078 Dijon, France~Received 1 August 2000; published 4 April 2001!This article reports on the near-ﬁeld optical response of a small square grating of gold nanoparticles tailoredby electron-beam lithography. The investigation of the grating is aimed at a deepened understanding ofelectromagnetic interaction among particles due to scattered light ﬁelds. Therefore, a photon scanning tunnel-ing microscope is applied to acquire near-ﬁeld optical images. Two different incident wavelengths are used tocharacterize the intensity and the spatial localization of the electromagnetic near ﬁeld both in and out ofresonance for the excitation of particle plasmons. Furthermore, the near-ﬁeld enhancement resulting from theplasmon excitation is evaluated.DOI: 10.1103/PhysRevB.63.165422 PACS number~s!: 78.66.2w, 07.79.Fc, 42.25.FxI. INTRODUCTION

Near-field optical response of a two-dimensional grating of gold nanoparticles

A Photon Scanning Tunneling Microscope (PSTM) with probe-sample distance control by electron tunneling is used to probe the localized surface-plasmon fields of individual nanometric silver particles. As samples, conventional island films produced by thermal evaporation and regular particle arrays produced by an electron-beam-lithography-based technique, respectively, are used. In either case the strength and spatial localization of the surface-plasmon fields strongly depend on the excitation wavelength. The results are interpreted as different resonance frequencies of individual particles or of different sample areas. On regular arrays consisting of particles with a smallest diameter of 40 nm, the PSTM maps represent the plasmon field strength spatially resolved for individual particles.

Franz R. Aussenegg

Papers

Optical resonances in periodic surface arrays of metallic patches.

Raman scattering images and spectra of gold ring arrays

Electrically actuated elastomers for electro–optical modulators

Near-field optical response of a two-dimensional grating of gold nanoparticles

Investigation of localized surface plasmons with the photon scanning tunneling microscope