Anisotropic plasmonic Cu nanoparticles in sol-gel oxide nanopillars studied by spectroscopic Mueller matrix ellipsometry

Broadened plasmon resonances of Cu nanoparticles in nanopatterned mixed oxide sol-gel nanopillars are shown to be readily detected by spectroscopic Mueller matrix ellipsometry. The plasmonic nanomaterials are obtained by low energy ion sputtering of a CuO sol-gel film. Both s- and p-polarized plasmon resonances are observed in the off-block-diagonal and the block-diagonal Mueller matrix elements as well as in the generalized ellipsometric parameters. The resonant features in all elements correlate with both maximum depolarization and a minimum in the reflected intensity. The spectral position and the polarization character of the plasmon resonances are discussed phenomenologically through effective medium theory.

Characterization of nanostructured GaSb: comparison between large-area optical and local direct microscopic techniques

Low energy ion-beam sputtering of GaSb results in self-organized nanostructures with the potential of structuring large surface areas. Characterization of such nanostructures by optical methods is studied and compared to direct (local) microscopic methods. The samples consist of densely packed GaSb cones on bulk GaSb, approximately 30, 50, and 300 nm in height, prepared by sputtering at normal incidence. The optical properties are studied by spectroscopic ellipsometry, in the range 0.6-6.5 eV, and with Mueller matrix ellipsometry in the visible range, 1.46-2.88 eV. The optical measurements are compared to direct topography measurements obtained by scanning electron microscopy, high resolution transmission electron microscopy, and atomic force microscopy. Good agreement is achieved between the two classes of methods when the experimental optical response of the short cones (<55 nm) is inverted with respect to topological surface information, via a graded anisotropic effective medium model. The main topological parameter measured was the average cone height. Optical methods are shown to represent a valuable characterization tool of nanostructured surfaces, in particular when a large coverage area is desirable. Because of the fast and nondestructive properties of optical techniques, they may readily be adapted to in situ configurations.

Anomalous phonon behavior: blueshift of the surface boson peak in silica glass with increasing temperature

We present helium atom scattering measurements of the boson peak at the surface of vitreous silica between 127.0 and 368.5 K. The most probable energy shows a strong temperature dependence and increases linearly with temperature in the measured range. The observed blueshift of the surface boson peak (shift rate 0.008+/-0.002 meV/K) is a factor of 4 to 10 times stronger than shift rates measured in the bulk by inelastic neutron and Raman scattering. We suggest that the anomalous shift direction of the boson peak to higher energies with increasing temperature has the same origin as the unusual temperature dependence of the bulk modulus of silica glass.

Observation of the boson peak at the surface of vitreous silica

The boson peak is an excess in the phonon density of states compared to the Debye model that appears in almost all glasses. It has been repeatedly measured in the bulk by a variety of methods, but its origin is still highly debated. Here we present first experimental evidence of the boson peak on the v-SiO2 surface. The measurements were obtained by helium atom scattering. The boson peak appears as a dispersionless mode of approximately 4 meV in the recorded time-of-flight spectra. It is clearly identified as an excess contribution to the low energy Debye-like region in the surface phonon spectral density which is extracted from the time-of-flight spectra using a straightforward theoretical model.