Photoluminescence Quenching Upon Growth of Metal Nanoparticles: Quantum-Mechanical Views.

Abstract

In dictating the optical processes in metal nanoparticles, for instance, quantum nature of free electrons is significantly dominant and plays very crucial roles at the level of nanoscale dimensions of materials. As consequences of the quantum-confinement effects on the conduction electrons, surface-plasmon resonance induced optical absorption and light emission properties of metal nanoparticles are found to be strongly dependent on physical dimensions of the nanomaterials. In addition, surface-confined acoustic vibration (phonon) modes have been experimentally observed to depend on the sizes of the metal nanoparticles. Also, interestingly, tuning of the surface-plasmon resonance condition is found to enhance the intensity of the acoustic Raman modes in metal nanoparticles. The study highlights the role of plasmon-phonon coupling in Co metal nanoparticles embedded in a silica-glass. In the research field of nanosciences and nanotechnologies, extraordinary behaviour and properties of nanoscale matters are investigated. In this context, interesting studies have been discussed in this review article to elaborate optical, chemical and photoluminescence properties of nanoscale Ag metal particles. Subtle detection of optical phenomena associated with the excited many-body electronic processes in the metal nanoparticles, for example, are very interesting but definitely challenging. Here we make an attempt to find out how the thermal growth of Ag metal nanoparticles in a glass matrix snuffs out the light emission from the samples? Quantum mechanical interpretations of the underlying processes about the quenching of photoluminescence phenomena with the growth of the metal nanoparticles will help to fine tune the optical properties of plasmonic systems as well as to harness potential applications of the nanomaterials.