Fabrication, Properties, and Applications of Metal Nanoshells and Nanoparticle Assemblies

9801707 Halas这一提案提出了使用金属纳米壳和金属-介电纳米颗粒组件，用于将各种独特的和潜在的技术上重要的光学性质“纳米工程”到材料和器件中。 中心目标是应用这些现有材料的增强和新材料和设备的开发。 这是一个多学科的努力，包括纳米粒子合成，薄膜和器件制备，各种光学和物理光谱和测量，理论分析。 重点的具体主题是：-开发基于金属纳米壳的材料作为红外吸收剂和NLO材料， 和作为太阳能吸收/散射材料;-将金属纳米壳结合到导电聚合物中，其中金属纳米壳共振被明智地放置成与材料的特定激发选择性地相互作用;-将光致发光物质添加到金属纳米壳的介电核中，以表征金属“纳米腔”对内部光学活性物质的影响;- 通过在扫描隧道显微镜尖端的顶点处结合纳米结构来利用金属纳米壳等离子体激元的强局部场，用于光学可寻址探针尖端应用;- 开发纳米粒子组件作为太赫兹共振材料，并作为研究和控制等离子体激元-等离子体激元相互作用的实验测试平台。虽然范围非常多学科，但本提案中描述的工作与首席研究员，她的研究小组和她目前的合作者的专业知识一致。 这种化学合成，光学和电子光谱，扫描探针显微镜和理论的综合结合定义和令人兴奋的研究氛围，研究生在其中提出并提供了一个成功的，创新的应用研究范式。

9801707HalasThis proposal addresses the use of metal nanoshells and metal-dielectric nanoparticles assemblies for the "nanoengineering" of a wide variety of unique and potentially technologically important optical properties into both materials and devices. The central goal is to apply these enhancement of existing materials and the development of new materials and devices. This is a multidisciplinary effort composed of nanopartical synthesis, film and device preparation, a variety of optical and physical spectroscopies and measurements, the theoretical analysis. The specific topics of focus are:- the development of metal nanoshell-based materials as infrared absorbers and NLO materials, and as solar absorbing/scattering materials;- the incorporation of metal nanoshells into conducting polymers where the metal nanoshell resonances are judiciously placed in interact selectively with specific excitations of the material;- the addition of photoluminescent species into the dielectric core of metal nanoshells, to characterize the effect of the metallic "nanocavity" on the optically active species inside;- the fabrication of layered device structures incorporating metal nanoshells, to characterize plasmon-induced hot electron-based photoconductivity in these devices;- to exploit the intense local field of the metal nanoshell plasmon by incorporating the nanostructure at the apex of a Scanning Tunneling Microscop tip, for optically addressable probe tip applications;- to develop nanoparticle assemblies as terahertz-resonant materials and as an experimental testbed for studying and controlling plasmon-plasmon interactions in well-characterized geometries.Although highly multidisciplinary in scope, the work described in this proposal is consistent with the demonstrated expertise of the Principal Investigator, her research group, and her current collaborators. This integrated combination of chemical synthesis, optical and electron spectroscopies, scanning probe microscopies, and theory defines and exciting research atmosphere in which graduate students propsper and provides a successful, innovative paradigm for applied research.***