Growth process of nanosized aluminum thin films by pulsed laser deposition for fluorescence enhancement

Pulsed laser deposition was used to deposit aluminum thin films of various thicknesses (tAl) ranging from 5 to 40 nm and to investigate their growth process when they are deposited onto SiO2 and Y2O3. Atomic force microscopy and x-ray reflectivity measurements show that the structure of the Al films are related to the wettability properties of the underlaying layer. Onto SiO2, ultra-smooth layers of aluminum are obtained, due to a perfect wetting of SiO2 by Al. In contrast when deposited onto Y2O3, percolated Al layers are observed with apparent pore size decreasing from 200 to 82 nm as t(Al) is increased from 5 to 40 nm, respectively. This particular morphology is related to partial dewetting of Al on Y2O3. These two different growth mechanisms of aluminum depend therefore on the surface properties of SiO2 and Y2O3. The plasmon resonance of such Al nanostructures in the UV region was then analyzed by studying the coupling between Eu(3+) rare earth emitters and Al.

Plasmonic enhancement of Eu:Y2O3 luminescence by Al percolated layer

The coupling between Eu(3+) rare earth emitters and Al has been investigated in multilayer structures, which consist of an Eu:Y2O3 phosphor film deposited between percolated and continuous Al films. Passive buffer Y2O3 layers were deposited between phosphor and Al films with different thicknesses to analyze the role of the Eu-Al distance on the nanostructuration and emission of the Eu:Y2O3 film. By using Eu(3+) emitters as local structural probes completed by transmission electron microscopy analyses, we show that the deposition on Al promotes the growth of the cubic crystallites. A fluorescence analysis allows us to evaluate the presence of a perturbed structural shell around the cubic core of the crystallites. Moreover, the enhancement observed at short distances is attributed to the localized plasmon resonance of the percolated upper Al film.

Metal enhanced fluorescence in rare earth doped plasmonic core-shell nanoparticles

We theoretically and numerically investigate metal enhanced fluorescence of plasmonic core-shell nanoparticles doped with rare earth (RE) ions. Particle shape and size are engineered to maximize the average enhancement factor (AEF) of the overall doped shell. We show that the highest enhancement (11 in the visible and 7 in the near-infrared) is achieved by tuning either the dipolar or the quadrupolar particle resonance to the rare earth ion's excitation wavelength. Additionally, the calculated AEFs are compared to experimental data reported in the literature, obtained in similar conditions (plasmon mediated enhancement) or when a metal-RE energy transfer mechanism is involved.

Thin film growth using hetero embryo: demonstration on pyrochlore phase

The paper reports the possible use of nanoparticles embedded in amorphous host as hetero embryos in order to grow complex crystalline phases as thin film. Demonstration is performed in the prototypical case of pyrochlore phase Gd(2)Ti(2)O(7) grown from Gd(2)O(3) nanoparticles embedded in TiO(2) matrix at low temperature. As embryos, two kinds of nanoparticles are compared: clusters deposited by low energy cluster beam deposition (LECBD) and nanostructured films elaborated by sol-gel process. The growth has been analyzed by X-ray diffraction and transmission electron microscopy. Furthermore, the nanoparticles have been doped with Eu(3+) luminescence probes in order to follow the nucleation mechanisms at the atomic scale. It is shown that the size, shape, and composition of hetero embryos and as well their interfaces are of paramount importance to enhance the formation of complex materials, such as pyrochlore. By this mean, the first step in classical nucleation science, controlling the height of the energetic barrier, is skipped and the synthesis conditions can be eased.

Non-Debye normalization of the glass vibrational density of states in mildly densified silicate glasses

The evolution of the boson peak with densification at medium densification rates (up to 2.3%) in silicate glasses was followed through heat capacity measurements and low frequency Raman scattering. It is shown that the decrease of the boson peak induced by densification does not conform to that expected from a continuous medium; rather it follows a two step behaviour. The comparison of the heat capacity data with the Raman data shows that the light-vibration coupling coefficient is almost unaffected in this densification regime. These results are discussed in relation to the inhomogeneity of the glass elastic network at the nanometre scale.