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

We review the principle and methodology of leakage radiation microscopy (LRM) applied to surface plasmon polaritons (SPPs). Therefore we first analyse in detail the electromagnetic theory of leaky SPP waves. We show that LRM is a versatile optical far-field method allowing direct quantitative imaging and analysis of SPP propagation on thin metal films. We illustrate the LRM potentiality by analyzing the propagation of SPP waves interacting with several two dimensional plasmonic devices realized and studied in the recent years.

Leakage radiation microscopy of surface plasmon polaritons

An opto-chemical sensor with a reactive sensor layer for measuring concns. of substances has a reflecting layer (2), a reactive pref. swellable matrix (4) and a layer (3) with many "islands" (5) of electrically conductive material, pref. metal, the dia. of the islands being smaller than the wavelength of the light used for observation and/or analysis. Also claimed is a process for the prodn. of the sensor, in which the island film is produced on the polymer matrix (4) by vapour deposition, or produced or modified by attaching metal particles to (4), or produced or modified (in no. and size) by removing excess metal from (4). Pref. matrix (4) consists of optically transparent polymer, e.g. polyacrylic acid or PVP derivs., pref. acrylic acid/acrylamide copolymers. The optical thickness of this matrix is less than 1000 nm, pref. less than 600 nm.

Optochemical sensor and process for its production

Measurement of Raman scattering in high field electric strength

Surface enhanced absorption of metal nano-clusters enabled us to transduce bioaffinity interactions highly amplifying the optical effect of changes in sensor surface coverage. The sensors were built depositing multiple nanoscale layers: at first silver or gold were sputtered onto oxygen plasma activated polycarbonate substrates to obtain a semitransparent metal cluster layer. Alternatively the primary metal layer was built of gold colloids covalently coupled to the activated polycarbonate. Next a chemically inert distance layer was applied e.g. by polymer-spinning. Finally a second cluster layer of e.g. gold colloids was coupled via bioaffinity interactions to the surface of the inert distance layer. The optical properties of the senor were found to be dependent on the size, shape and number of the metal-clusters as well as the distance between both metal cluster layers. For biomedical sensing the number and the spatial arrangement of biorecognitive bound metal clusters was transduced into an optical signal with high sensitivity. Since the defined spatial approach of colloids to the sensor surface alone creates the signal we could visually follow molecular binding events in real time. The first setups constructed were based on lectin-hexose or antibody-antigen interaction. The analytes were quantified via a distinct change of the spectral reflectivity of the sensor chip visible to the eye or measured by a miniaturized photometric device.© (1998) COPYRIGHT SPIE--The International Society for Optical Engineering. Downloading of the abstract is permitted for personal use only.

Franz R. Aussenegg

Papers

Leakage radiation microscopy of surface plasmon polaritons

Optochemical sensor and process for its production

Measurement of Raman scattering in high field electric strength

Optical nanocluster plasmon sensors as transducers for bioaffinity interactions

Collinear and noncollinear emission of anti-stokes and second order stokes raman radiation