Claire Marvinney

Probing plasmons in three dimensions by combining complementary spectroscopies in a scanning transmission electron microscope

The nanoscale optical response of surface plasmons in three-dimensional metallic nanostructures plays an important role in many nanotechnology applications, where precise spatial and spectral characteristics of plasmonic elements control device performance. Electron energy loss spectroscopy (EELS) and cathodoluminescence (CL) within a scanning transmission electron microscope have proven to be valuable tools for studying plasmonics at the nanoscale. Each technique has been used separately, producing three-dimensional reconstructions through tomography, often aided by simulations for complete characterization. Here we demonstrate that the complementary nature of the two techniques, namely that EELS probes beam-induced electronic excitations while CL probes radiative decay, allows us to directly obtain a spatially- and spectrally-resolved picture of the plasmonic characteristics of nanostructures in three dimensions. The approach enables nanoparticle-by-nanoparticle plasmonic analysis in three dimensions to aid in the design of diverse nanoplasmonic applications.

Direct Observation of Plasmonic Enhancement of Emission in Ag-nanoparticle-decorated ZnO nanostructures

1. Vanderbilt University, Department of Physics and Astronomy, Nashville, TN USA 2. Oak Ridge National Laboratory, Materials Science and Technology Division, Oak Ridge, TN USA 3. Vanderbilt University, Interdisciplinary Materials Science Program, Nashville TN, USA 4. Fisk University, Department of Physics and Astronomy, Nashville, TN USA 5. National University of Singapore, Department of Materials Science and Engineering, Singapore 6. Vanderbilt University, Department of Electrical Engineering and Computer Science, Nashville, TN USA

Probing Plasmons in Three Dimensions within Random Morphology Nanostructures

1. Vanderbilt University, Department of Physics and Astronomy, Nashville, TN USA 2. Oak Ridge National Laboratory, Materials Science and Technology Division, Oak Ridge, TN USA 3. Vanderbilt University, Interdisciplinary Materials Science Program, Nashville TN, USA 4. Fisk University, Department of Physics and Astronomy, Nashville, TN USA 5. National University of Singapore, Department of Materials Science and Engineering, Singapore 6. Vanderbilt University, Department of Electrical Engineering and Computer Science, Nashville, TN USA