PLASMMONS | Plasmons and Mechanical Motions at the Nano-Scale Investigated with Frequency-Domain Experiments and Simulations

Summary
Plasmons are oscillations of charge carriers in metallic nanoparticles that confine light in the nanometer length-scale. Translationally symmetric arrays of metallic nanoparticles, termed Plasmonic Super-Crystals (PSCs), can become an integral part of augmented light-harvesting technologies, like plasmonic solar cells and photocatalysts. A current limitation is that plasmons are fragile, short-living excitations, which are highly sensitive to the exact arrangement of matter at the nanoscale. The structural stability of PSCs is prone to multifarious nanomechanical motions such as nanoparticle-vibrations, colloidal phonons, and surface waves on the substrate. With this project, I aim to elucidate the role of nanomechanical motions on the plasmonic properties of PSCs. To achieve this goal I will employ White Light Absorption (WLA) to study plasmonic resonances and Brillouin Light Scattering (BLS) to study mechanical resonances. Plasmonically-enhanced BLS and spectroscopic investigation of plasmons in vibrationally-excited PSCs, will be used to reveal cross-talking between the two subsystems. A momentum-resolved view of vibrational waves will be acquired with angle-resolved BLS. The experimental results will be interpreted based on frequency-domain, finite-element simulations of plasmomechanical coupling phenomena. With this approach, I intend to adopt the concept of microscopic couplings from condensed-matter Physics, to a metamaterial and determine the fundamental excitations and interactions of these artificial structures. Understanding the interplay between plasmonic and structural degrees of freedom in PSCs is expected to pave the way for their use in plasmomechanical devices.
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More information & hyperlinks
Web resources: https://cordis.europa.eu/project/id/101003436
Start date: 01-11-2020
End date: 31-10-2022
Total budget - Public funding: 149 625,60 Euro - 149 625,00 Euro
Cordis data

Original description

Plasmons are oscillations of charge carriers in metallic nanoparticles that confine light in the nanometer length-scale. Translationally symmetric arrays of metallic nanoparticles, termed Plasmonic Super-Crystals (PSCs), can become an integral part of augmented light-harvesting technologies, like plasmonic solar cells and photocatalysts. A current limitation is that plasmons are fragile, short-living excitations, which are highly sensitive to the exact arrangement of matter at the nanoscale. The structural stability of PSCs is prone to multifarious nanomechanical motions such as nanoparticle-vibrations, colloidal phonons, and surface waves on the substrate. With this project, I aim to elucidate the role of nanomechanical motions on the plasmonic properties of PSCs. To achieve this goal I will employ White Light Absorption (WLA) to study plasmonic resonances and Brillouin Light Scattering (BLS) to study mechanical resonances. Plasmonically-enhanced BLS and spectroscopic investigation of plasmons in vibrationally-excited PSCs, will be used to reveal cross-talking between the two subsystems. A momentum-resolved view of vibrational waves will be acquired with angle-resolved BLS. The experimental results will be interpreted based on frequency-domain, finite-element simulations of plasmomechanical coupling phenomena. With this approach, I intend to adopt the concept of microscopic couplings from condensed-matter Physics, to a metamaterial and determine the fundamental excitations and interactions of these artificial structures. Understanding the interplay between plasmonic and structural degrees of freedom in PSCs is expected to pave the way for their use in plasmomechanical devices.

Status

CLOSED

Call topic

WF-02-2019

Update Date

17-05-2024
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Horizon 2020
H2020-EU.4. SPREADING EXCELLENCE AND WIDENING PARTICIPATION
H2020-EU.4.0. Cross-cutting call topics
H2020-WF-02-2019
WF-02-2019