Rebecca Sainidou

Efficient Generation of Propagating Plasmons by Electron Beams

We report highly efficient generation of propagating plasmons by electron beams in planar films, planar dielectric cavities, metallic wires, and nanoparticle waveguides. Electron-induced plasmon excitation is investigated in (1) gold thin films, both free-standing or supported on a silica substrate, (2) gold-silica-gold planar cavities, (3) gold nanowires, and (4) gold nanoparticle arrays. We obtain excitation yields as high as 10(- 2) plasmons per incoming electron over the visible and near-infrared range. Symmetric and antisymmetric plasmon modes are found to be more easily excited in thick and thin films, respectively, and in particular leaky plasmons in supported films are shown to be excited with very large probability exceeding one plasmon per electron. Generation of guided plasmons in metallic particle arrays is also proved to be attainable by aiming the electron at one end of the waveguide. The temporal evolution and spectral distribution of excited plasmons are discussed as well. Our results provide full support for the application of electron bombardment to excite propagating plasmons with high efficiency, thus solving the standing problem of plasmon generation at designated locations.

The "Music" of Core-Shell Spheres and Hollow Capsules: Influence of the Architecture on the Mechanical Properties at the Nanoscale

We report on the first measurement of elastic vibrational modes in core-shell spheres (silica-poly(methyl methacrylate), SiO2-PMMA) and corresponding spherical hollow capsules (PMMA) with different particle size and shell thickness using Brillouin light scattering, supported by numerical calculations. These localized modes allow access to the mechanical moduli down to a few tens of nanometers. We observe reduced mechanical strength of the porous silica core, and for the core-shell spheres a striking increase of the moduli in both the SiO2 core and the PMMA shell. The peculiar behavior of the vibrational modes in the hollow capsules is attributed to antagonistic dependence on overall size and layer thickness in agreement with theoretical predictions.

Extraordinary all-dielectric light enhancement over large volumes.

We present resonant dielectric structures exhibiting arbitrarily large optical field enhancement, only limited by fabrication imperfections. Three different arrangements are investigated, based upon dielectric waveguides, dielectric particle arrays, and a combination of these two structures. Experimental confirmation of enhancement in a waveguide resonator is achieved by measuring the luminescence of quantum dots dispersed in the hot optical region of the structure. The performance of these systems can be readily controlled by simply changing geometrical parameters, which allows obtaining remarkable values of the intensity enhancement approaching 105 relative to the incident intensity over large volumes under feasible experimental conditions. This opens new avenues for all-optical switching and biosensing.

The layer multiple-scattering method applied to phononic crystals

Abstract After a brief description of the layer multiple scattering method as applied to phononic crystals, we present some results obtained by this method, relating to: crystals of polystyrene spheres in water; crystals of silica spheres in air; and crystals of steel spheres in polyester. We relate the transmission characteristics of slabs of these ma terials to the complex band structure of the corresponding infinite crystals. We emphasize aspects of the underlying physics which have not been discussed previously.

Thermomechanical Properties and Glass Dynamics of Polymer-Tethered Colloidal Particles and Films

Polymer-tethered colloidal particles (aka “particle brush materials”) have attracted interest as a platform for innovative material technologies and as a model system to elucidate glass formation in complex structured media. In this contribution, Brillouin light scattering is used to sequentially evaluate the role of brush architecture on the dynamical properties of brush particles in both the individual and assembled (film) state. In the former state, the analysis reveals that brush–brush interactions as well as global chain relaxation sensitively depend on grafting density; i.e., more polymer-like behavior is observed in sparse brush systems. This is interpreted to be a consequence of more extensive chain entanglement. In contrast, the local relaxation of films does not depend on grafting density. The results highlight that relaxation processes in particle brush-based materials span a wider range of time and length scales as compared to linear chain polymers. Differentiation between relaxation on local and global scale is necessary to reveal the influence of molecular structure and connectivity on the aging behavior of these complex systems.

Optical Switching through Nonlinearity of Nanoparticle Arrays

We propose to use nanosphere arrays for all-optical transmission-switching based on the nonlinearity of the particles driven by field enhancement at a lattice resonance of the array.