Correlating optical properties of self-assembled metal nanoparticles with their fine nanoscale structure via co-registration of electron microscopy...

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Full Title: Correlating optical properties of self-assembled metal nanoparticles with their fine nanoscale structure via co-registration of electron microscopy and optical interrogation methodsAlthough much progress has been made on establishing the impact of optical stimuli on the behaviour of gold nanoparticle and molecular spacer systems, their nanoscale processes are still unknown. Many of the current hypotheses pertaining to the nanoscale structure are based on optical modelling and generalised assumptions on the constituents involved. This project aims to investigate in detail how these systems behave structurally, electronically and optically at the nanoscale, to optimise their stability and performance for sustainable chemistry and energy harvesting applications. To this end, a comparative study on the stability and mobility/diffusivity of plasmonic materials will be made. Typical plasmonic materials are coinage metals (Au, Ag, Cu), but these tend to be relatively 'soft', resulting in a high mobility in the surface atoms being observed under irradiation, limiting their practical applications. As a result, nanostructured materials tend to deform, yielding significantly altered structures from those hypothesised and modelled for understanding the sample. To overcome this, it is essential to develop a better understanding of how self-assembled monolayers of molecules alter the behaviour of metalsurfaces. Understanding this behaviour in more detail is crucial to the design of energetically favourable and thus more durable nanoarchitectures for plasmonic applications.