Atomic clusters, consisting of a few to a few thousand atoms, have emerged over the past 40 years as the ultimate nanoparticles, whose structure and properties can be controlled one atom at a time. One of the early motivations in studying clusters was to understand how the properties of matter evolve as a function of size, shape, and composition. Over the past few decades, more than 200 000 papers have been published in this field. These studies have not only led to a considerable understanding of this evolution from clusters to crystals, but also have revealed many unusual size-specific properties that make cluster science an interdisciplinary field on its own, bridging physics, chemistry, materials science, biology, and medicine. More importantly, the possibility of creating a new class of materials, composed of clusters instead of atoms as building blocks, has fueled the hope that one can synthesize materials from the bottom-up with unique and tailored properties. This Review focuses on the properties ...

Super Atomic Clusters: Design Rules and Potential for Building Blocks of Materials

The discovery of carbon fullerene cages and their solids opened a new avenue to build materials from stable cage clusters as “artificial atoms” or “superatoms” instead of atoms. However, cage clust...

Endohedrally Doped Cage Clusters

Hot electron processes at metallic heterojunctions are central to optical-to-chemical or electrical energy transduction. Ultrafast nonlinear photoexcitation of graphite (Gr) has been shown to create hot thermalized electrons at temperatures corresponding to the solar photosphere in less than 25 fs. Plasmonic resonances in metallic nanoparticles are also known to efficiently generate hot electrons. Here we deposit Ag nanoclusters (NC) on Gr to study the ultrafast hot electron generation and dynamics in their plasmonic heterojunctions by means of time-resolved two-photon photoemission (2PP) spectroscopy. By tuning the wavelength of p-polarized femtosecond excitation pulses, we find an enhancement of 2PP yields by 2 orders of magnitude, which we attribute to excitation of a surface-normal Mie plasmon mode of Ag/Gr heterojunctions at 3.6 eV. The 2PP spectra include contributions from (i) coherent two-photon absorption of an occupied interface state (IFS) 0.2 eV below the Fermi level, which electronic structur...

Ultrafast Plasmon-Enhanced Hot Electron Generation at Ag Nanocluster/Graphite Heterojunctions.

ConspectusNanoclusters, aggregates of several to hundreds of atoms, have been one of the central issues of nanomaterials sciences owing to their unique structures and properties, which could be found neither in nanoparticles with several nanometer diameters nor in organometallic complexes. Along with the chemical nature of each element, properties of nanoclusters change dramatically with size parameters, making nanoclusters strong potential candidates for future tailor-made materials; these nanoclusters are expected to have attractive properties such as redox activity, catalysis, and magnetism. Alloying of nanoclusters additionally gives designer functionality by fine control of their electronic structures in addition to size parameters. Among binary nanoclusters, binary cage superatoms (BCSs) composed of transition metal (M) encapsulating silicon cages, M@Si16, have unique cage structures of 16 silicon atoms, which have not been found in elemental silicon nanoclusters, organosilicon compounds, and silico...

Synthesis and Characterization of Metal-Encapsulating Si16 Cage Superatoms

Experimental methods for ultrafast microscopy are advancing rapidly. Promising methods combine ultrafast laser excitation with electron-based imaging or rely on super-resolution optical techniques to enable probing of matter on the nano–femto scale. Among several actively developed methods, ultrafast time-resolved photoemission electron microscopy provides several advantages, among which the foremost are that time resolution is limited only by the laser source and it is immediately capable of probing of coherent phenomena in solid-state materials and surfaces. Here we present recent progress in interference imaging of plasmonic phenomena in metal nanostructures enabled by combining a broadly tunable femtosecond laser excitation source with a low-energy electron microscope.

Ultrafast Microscopy: Imaging Light with Photoelectrons on the Nano-Femto Scale.

The controlled assembly of superatomic nanocluster ions synthesized in the gas phase is a key technology for constructing a novel series of functional nanomaterials. However, it is generally difficult to immobilize them onto a conductive surface while maintaining their original properties owing to undesirable modifications of their geometry and charge state. In this study, it has been shown that this difficulty can be overcome by controlling the donor–acceptor interaction between nanoclusters and surfaces. Cations of Ta-atom-encapsulated Si16 cage nanoclusters (Ta@Si16) behaving as rare-gas-like superatoms are synthesized in the gas phase and deposited on conductive surfaces terminated with acceptor-like C60 and donor-like α-sexithiophene (6T) molecules. Scanning tunneling microscopy and spectroscopy have demonstrated that Ta@Si16 cations can be densely immobilized onto C60-terminated surfaces while retaining their cage shape and positive charge, which is realized by creating binary charge transfer complexes (Ta@Si16+–C60−) on the surfaces. The Ta@Si16 nanoclusters exhibit excellent thermal stability on C60-teminated surfaces similar to those in the gas phase, whereas the nanoclusters destabilize at room temperature on 6T-terminated surfaces owing to the loss of electronic closure via a change in the charge state.

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Formation of a superatom monolayer using gas-phase-synthesized Ta@Si16 nanocluster ions

Time-resolved two-photon photoemission (TR-2PPE) spectroscopy is employed to probe the electronic states of a C60 fullerene film formed on highly oriented pyrolytic graphite (HOPG), acting as a model two-dimensional (2D) material for multi-layered graphene. Owing to the in-plane sp2-hybridized nature of the HOPG, the TR-2PPE spectra reveal the energetics and dynamics of photocarriers in the C60 film: after hot excitons are nascently formed in C60 via intramolecular excitation by a pump photon, they dissociate into photocarriers of free electrons and the corresponding holes, and the electrons are subsequently detected by a probe photon as photoelectrons. The decay rate of photocarriers from the C60 film into the HOPG is evaluated to be 1.31 × 1012 s-1, suggesting a weak van der Waals interaction at the interface, where the photocarriers tentatively occupy the lowest unoccupied molecular orbital (LUMO) of C60. The photocarrier electron dynamics following the hot exciton dissociation in the organic thin films has not been realized for any metallic substrates exhibiting strong interactions with the overlayer. Furthermore, the thickness dependence of the electron lifetime in the LUMO reveals that the electron hopping rate in C60 layers is 3.3 ± 1.2 × 1013 s-1.

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Direct observation of photocarrier electron dynamics in C60 films on graphite by time-resolved two-photon photoemission

Lower grade gliomas with 1p/19q codeletion are often responsive to chemotherapy, and several of these have been treated using upfront chemotherapy and subsequent resection following tumor volume decrease. This study aimed to elucidate the histological changes and the mechanism of recurrence after alkylating agent chemotherapy in 1p/19-codeleted gliomas. Fourteen 1p/19q-codeleted gliomas resected following tumor volume decrease after alkylating agent chemotherapy were included and compared with their pre-chemotherapy specimens. Histological changes were investigated using hematoxylin–eosin staining, and changes in proliferative activity, status of glioma stem cells (GSCs), and tumor-infiltrating macrophages were assessed using immunohistochemistry for Ki-67/MIB-1, CD68 as a pan-macrophage/monocyte marker, CD163 as a presumed marker of M2 polarity, and nestin and CD133 as markers of GSCs. The most frequent histological findings following chemotherapy included a sparse glial background and abundant foamy cell infiltration. The Ki-67/MIB-1 index decreased and the number of CD68 + cells increased after chemotherapy. The increasing rate of CD68 + cells in the post-/pre-chemotherapy specimens was inversely correlated with patient prognosis but not tumor response. The number of CD163 + cells, M2/M1 + M2 ratio, and the ratio of GSCs to total tumor cells increased after chemotherapy, and those in the post-chemotherapy specimens were negatively correlated with patient prognosis. There was a correlation between the M2/M1 + M2 ratio and the ratio of GSCs in both pre- and post-chemotherapy specimens. GSCs in conjunction with M2 macrophages constitute the mechanism of resistance to and recurrence after alkylating agent chemotherapy in 1p/19q-codeleted gliomas.

Histopathological investigation of the 1p/19q-codeleted gliomas resected following alkylating agent chemotherapy

Molecular Electronics: Formation and Control of Ultrasharp Metal/Molecule Interfaces by Controlled Immobilization of Size‐Selected Metal Nanoclusters onto Organic Molecular Films (Adv. Funct. Mater. 9/2014)

Background A combined transpetrosal approach (CTP) is often used for large lesions in the posterior cranial fossa (PCF). Although CTP provides a wide surgical corridor, it has complex and time-consuming bony work of mastoidectomy and cosmetic issues. Here, we describe a simple combined surgical technique to approach the supratentorial region, anterolateral surface of the brainstem, petroclival region, and foramen magnum by drilling only the petrous apex with a combination of retrosigmoid approach (RA). Clinical presentation A 27-year-old female was referred with extra-axial left cerebellopontine angle space-occupying epidermoid cyst extending to the prepontine cistern, anterior to the basilar artery, superior to the chiasma, and caudally to the foramen magnum. A one-stage surgical procedure using the anterior transpetrosal approach (ATP) and RA was performed after one-piece temporal-suboccipital craniotomy. These two approaches complemented each other well. Near-total removal was achieved. Conclusion A one-stage surgical procedure using ATP and RA provides the wider viewing and better visualization of the PCF with minimal technical difficulty.

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Masato Nakaya

Papers

Formation of a superatom monolayer using gas-phase-synthesized Ta@Si16 nanocluster ions

Direct observation of photocarrier electron dynamics in C60 films on graphite by time-resolved two-photon photoemission

Histopathological investigation of the 1p/19q-codeleted gliomas resected following alkylating agent chemotherapy

Molecular Electronics: Formation and Control of Ultrasharp Metal/Molecule Interfaces by Controlled Immobilization of Size‐Selected Metal Nanoclusters onto Organic Molecular Films (Adv. Funct. Mater. 9/2014)

A simple combined approach using anterior transpetrosal and retrosigmoid approach: A case report