A. Janse van Vuuren

Synthesis, characterization and multifunctional properties of plasmonic Ag-TiO2 nanocomposites.

We report on the synthesis of multifunctional Ag-TiO2 nanocomposites and their optical, physio-chemical, surface enhanced Raman scattering (SERS) and antibacterial properties. A series of Ag-TiO2 nanocomposites were synthesized by sol-gel technique and characterized by x-ray diffraction, scanning and transmission electron microscopy, energy-dispersed x-ray analysis, photoluminescence, UV-vis, x-ray photoelectron and Raman spectroscopy and Brunauer-Emmett-Teller method. The Ag nanoparticles (NPs) (7-20 nm) were found to be uniformly distributed around and strongly attached to TiO2 NPs. The novel optical responses of the nanocomposites are due to the strong electric field from the localized surface plasmon (LSP) excitation of the Ag NPs and decreased recombination of photo-induced electrons and holes at Ag-TiO2 interface providing potential materials for photocatalysis. The nanocomposites show enhancement in the SERS signals of methyl orange (MO) molecules with increasing Ag content attributed to the long-range electromagnetic enhancement from the excited LSP of the Ag NPs. To further understand the SERS activity, molecular mechanics and molecular dynamics simulations were used to study the geometries and SERS enhancement of MO adsorbed onto Ag-TiO2 respectively. Simulation results indicate that number of ligands (MO) that adsorb onto the Ag NPs as well as binding energy per ligand increases with increasing NP density and molecule-to-surface orientation is mainly flat resulting in strong bond strength between MO and Ag NP surface and enhanced SERS signals. The antimicrobial activity of the Ag-TiO2 nanocomposites was tested against the bacterium Staphylococcus aureus and enhanced antibacterial effect was observed with increasing Ag content explained by contact killing action mechanism. These results foresee promising applications of the plasmonic metal-semiconductor based nano-biocomposites for both chemical and biological samples.

The role of neutral and ionized oxygen defects in the emission of tin oxide nanocrystals for near white light application

Tin oxide (SnO2) nanocrystals (NCs) based phosphor was synthesized by a green chemistry microwave-assisted hydrothermal method at different reactor pressures. The x-ray diffraction analysis showed that a single rutile SnO2 phase with a tetragonal lattice structure was formed. The photoluminescence emission was measured for He-Cd laser excitation at 325 nm and it showed a broad band emission from 400 to 800 nm for all the synthesized reactor pressures. The broad emission spectra were due to the creation of various oxygen and tin defects as confirmed by x-ray photoelectron spectroscopy data. The origin of the emission in the SnO2 NCs is discussed with the help of an energy band diagram. Analysis suggests that the visible emission of SnO2 NCs is due to a transition of an electron from a level close to the conduction band edge to a deeply trapped hole in the SnO2 NCs. The NCs were found to be suitable for warm near white light emission device applications.

Enhanced formation of Ge nanocrystals in Ge:SiO 2 layers by swift heavy ions

In this paper we report the ability of swift heavy Xe ions with an energy of 480MeV and a fluence of 10 12 cm −2 to enhance the formation of Ge nanocrystals within SiO2 layers with variable Ge contents. These Ge-SiO2 films were fabricated by the co-sputtering of Ge and quartz sources which followed various annealing procedures. In particular, we found that the irradiation of the Ge:SiO2 films with subsequent annealing at 500 ◦ C leads to the formation of a high concentration of nanocrystals (NCs) with a size of 2‐5nm, whereas without irradiation only amorphous inclusions were observed. This effect, as evidenced by Raman spectra, is enhanced by pre-irradiation at 550 ◦ C and post-irradiation annealing at 600 ◦ C, which also leads to the observation of room temperature visible photoluminescence. (Some figures may appear in colour only in the online journal)

Ion-beam formation and track modification of InAs nanoclusters in silicon and silica

The implantation formation of InAs nanoclusters in silicon and silica and their modification via irradiation with Xe ions with an energy of 167 MeV and a fluence of 3 × 1014 cm–2 are studied. It is found that post-implantation annealing and irradiation with high-energy ions alter the size and shape of nanoclusters and cause structural transformations within them. The ordering of nanoclusters and their elongation along the trajectory of Xe ions in a SiO2 matrix is observed.