Localized Surface Plasmon Energy Research Articles

Highly Transparent and Surface-Plasmon-Enhanced Visible-Photodetector Based on Zinc Oxide Thin-Film Transistors with Heterojunction Structure.

Highly transparent zinc oxide (ZnO)-based thin-film transistors (TFTs) with gold nanoparticles (AuNPs) capable of detecting visible light were fabricated through spray pyrolysis on a fluorine-doped tin oxide substrate. The spray-deposited channel layer of ZnO had a thickness of approximately 15 nm, and the thickness exhibited a linear increase with an increasing number of sprays. Furthermore, the ZnO thin-film exhibited a markedly smoother channel layer with a significantly lower surface roughness of 1.84 nm when the substrate was 20 cm from the spray nozzle compared with when it was 10 cm away. Finally, a ZnO and Au-NP heterojunction nanohybrid structure using plasmonic energy detection as an electrical signal, constitutes an ideal combination for a visible-light photodetector. The ZnO-based TFTs convert localized surface plasmon energy into an electrical signal, thereby extending the wide band-gap of materials used for photodetectors to achieve visible-light wavelength detection. The photo-transistors demonstrate an elevated on-current with an increase of the AuNP density in the concentration of 1.26, 12.6, and 126 pM and reach values of 3.75, 5.18, and 9.79 × 10−7 A with applied gate and drain voltages. Moreover, the threshold voltage (Vth) also drifts to negative values as the AuNP density increases.

Plasmonic nanoparticles enhancing blue emission from nematic liquid crystal

Abstract The photoluminescence (PL) performance of 5CB (n-pentyl-n′-cyanobiphenyl) containing with various concentrations of Ag and Au nanoparticles have been investigated. The PL enhancement and quenching of 5CB are found when the concentrations of dopants are in range of 60–80 μL and 40–60 μL, respectively. Associated with localized surface plasmon (LSP) resonance effect from Ag nanoparticles, the maximum emission enhancement of 5CB is about 1.8-fold under optimized doping concentration. It can be attributed to the spectral overlap between the LSP energy of metal particle and the excitation/emission spectra of 5CB. Comparing with Ag NPs doped 5CB substrates, only 1.4-fold PL enhancement is found in those samples doped with Au NPs, which is consistent with the finite difference time domain (FDTD) numerical analyses.

Plasmonic photothermal accumulation of particles by a microfiber decorated with gold nanostructures

This paper introduces an efficient method for accumulation of particles via thermophoresis and thermal convection sustained by localized surface plasmon energy. Gold nanorods were deposited on the designated surface of a microfiber, when a 808 nm laser at an optical power of 12 mV launched into the microfiber, particles dispersed in the water were massively trapped and aggregated on the substrate. This work is envisioned to have application in photothermal cancer therapy, photothermal imaging, and targeted drug delivery.

Competition Between Resonant Plasmonic Coupling and Electrostatic Interaction in Reduced Graphene Oxide Quantum Dots.

The light emission from reduced graphene oxide quantum dots (rGO-QDs) exhibit a significant enhancement in photoluminescence (PL) due to localized surface plasmon (LSP) interactions. Silver and gold nanoparticles (NPs) coupled to rGO nanoparticles exhibit the effect of resonant LSP coupling on the emission processes. Enhancement of the radiative recombination rate in the presence of Ag-NPs induced LSP tuned to the emission energy results in a four-fold increase in PL intensity. The localized field due to the resonantly coupled LSP modes induces n-π* transitions that are not observed in the absence of the resonant interaction of the plasmons with the excitons. An increase in the density of the Ag-NPs result in a detuning of the LSP energy from the emission energy of the nanoparticles. The detuning is due to the cumulative effect of the red-shift in the LSP energy and the electrostatic field induced blue shift in the PL energy of the rGO-QDs. The detuning quenches the PL emission from rGO-QDs at higher concentration of Ag NPs due to non-dissipative effects unlike plasmon induced Joule heating that occurs under resonance conditions. An increase in Au nanoparticles concentration results in an enhancement of PL emission due to electrostatic image charge effect.

Dynamic depolarization in plasmonic metal nanoparticles

At very low photon energies most metals have a very large and negative dielectric function. For the response of a metal nanoparticle to an external field in this limit, this means that the particular choice of metal does not matter and the localized surface plasmon energy mainly depends on the shape and size of the particle. Here, we present a theoretical framework to describe this situation and unearth the interplay between the depolarization factor of the problem at hand and the dielectric function of the particle. Available experimental results compare favorably with our theoretical framework.

Localized surface plasmon-enhanced ultraviolet electroluminescence from n-ZnO/i-ZnO/p-GaN heterojunction light-emitting diodes via optimizing the thickness of MgO spacer layer

Localized surface plasmon (LSP)-enhanced ultraviolet light-emitting diodes were manufactured by introducing Ag nanoparticles and MgO spacer layer into n-ZnO/i-ZnO/p-GaN heterostructures. By optimizing the MgO thickness, which can suppress the undesired charge transfer and nonradiative Förster resonant energy transfer between Ag and ZnO, a 7-fold electroluminescence enhancement was achieved. Time-resolved and temperature-dependent photoluminescence measurements reveal that both spontaneous emission rate and internal quantum efficiency are increased as a result of coupling between ZnO excitons and Ag LSPs, and simple calculations, based on experimental data, also indicate that most of LSP's energy can be converted into the photon energy.