Precise control over the morphology of nanostructures is critical for tailoring their physical and chemical properties. This study addresses the challenge of developing a simple, integrated method for synthesizing both 1D and 2D colloidal Cu nanostructures in a single system, achieving successful tuning of their localized surface plasmon resonance (LSPR) properties. A facile hydrothermal synthesis utilizing potassium iodide (KI) and hexadecylamine (HDA) is presented for controlling Cu nanostructure morphologies. The key to achieving 1D nanowires (NWs) and 2D nanoplates (NPs) depends on the controlled adsorption of HDA molecules and iodide (I-) ions on specific crystal facets. Depending on the morphologies, the resultant Cu nanostructures exhibit tunable LSPR peaks from 558 nm [nanoplates (NPs)] to 590 nm [nanowires (NWs)]. These results pave the way for the scalable and cost-effective production of plasmonic Cu nanostructures with tunable optical properties, holding promise for applications in sensing, catalysis, and photonic devices.
Laser-induced plasmonic sintering of metal nanoparticles (NPs) holds significant promise as a technology for producing flexible conducting electrodes. This method offers immediate, straightforward, and scalable manufacturing approaches, eliminating the need for expensive facilities and intricate processes. Nevertheless, the metal NPs come at a high cost due to the intricate synthesis procedures required to ensure long-term reliability in terms of chemical stability and the prevention of NP aggregation. Herein, we induced the self-generation of metal nanoparticles from Ag organometallic ink, and fabricated highly conductive electrodes on flexible substrates through laser-assisted plasmonic annealing. To demonstrate the practicality of the fabricated flexible electrode, it was configured in a mesh pattern, realizing multi-touchable flexible touch screen panel.
Flash lamp annealing (FLA) of metal nanoparticle (NP) ink has provided powerful strategies to fabricate highperformance electrodes on a flexible substrate because of its rapid processing capability (in milliseconds), low-temperature process, and compatibility with to roll-to-roll process. However, metal NPs [e.g., gold (Au), silver (Ag), copper (Cu), etc.] have limitations such as difficulty in synthesizing fine metal NPs (diameter less than 10 nm), high price, and degradation during ink storage and FLA processing. In this regard, organometallic ink has been proposed as a material that can replace metal NPs due to their low-cost (usually 1/100 times cheaper than metal nano inks), low-temperature processability, and high material stability. Despite these advantages, the fabrication of flexible electrodes through FLA treatment of organometallic compounds has not been extensively researched. In this paper, we experimentally guide how to determine the optimal conditions for forming electrodes on flexible substrates by considering material parameters, and flashlight processing parameters (energy density, pulse duration, etc) to minimize the difficulties that may arise during the FLA of organometallic ink.
Laser-induced plasmonic sintering of metal nanoparticles (NPs) is a promising technology to fabricate flexible conducting electrodes, since it provides instantaneous, simple, and scalable manufacturing strategies without requiring costly facilities and complex processes. However, the metal NPs are quite expensive because complicated synthesis procedures are needed to achieve long-term reliability with regard to chemical deterioration and NP aggregation. Herein, we report laser-induced Ag NP self-generation and sequential sintering process based on low-cost Ag organometallic material for demonstrating highquality microelectrodes. Upon the irradiation of laser with 532 nm wavelength, pre-baked Ag organometallic film coated on a transparent polyimide substrate was transformed into a high-performance Ag conductor (resistivity of 2.2 × 10-4 Ω·cm). To verify the practical usefulness of the technology, we successfully demonstrated a wearable transparent heater by using Ag-mesh transparent electrodes, which exhibited a high transmittance of 80% and low sheet resistance of 7 Ω/square.
We present the structural and optical properties of Au@TiO2 core-shell microsphere structure prepared by a hydrothermal synthesis method. As a way to improve the efficiency of organic solar cells, the Au@TiO2 core-shell microsphere was synthesized to use the local surface plasmon resonance (LSPR) phenomenon. The synthesized results were confirmed to have the Au@TiO2 core-shell structure using a high-resolution transmission electron microscopy. An absorption was observed to occur at 527 nm belonging to the visible light region using a visible light spectroscopy, which supports the LSPR phenomenon. We suggest that the Au@TiO2 core-shell microsphere is highly likely to be applied to organic solar cells including dye-sensitized solar cells. In addition, we expect it to be widely used not only in the energy but also in the bio as well as in the environmental fields.
In this study, we investigated plasmon effects to maximize the sterilization of dielectric discharge. We predicted the effect using the finite difference time domain (FDTD) method as a function of electrode shape, size, and period. The structure of the electrode was designed with a thickness of 100 nm of silver nanoparticles on a glass substrate, and was varied according to the shape, size, and period of the electrode hole. Based on the results, it was confirmed that the effect of plasmons was independent of the shape of the electrode hole. It was thus confirmed that the plasmon effect depended only on the size and period of the holes. Further, the plasmon effect was affected by the size rather than period of the holes. Because the absorption of light by the metal varied according to the size of the hole, the plasmon effect generated by the absorption of light also varied. The best results were obtained when the radius and period of the electrode holes were 0.1 μm and 0.4 μm, respectively.
In this study, e-beam equipment was used to form silver nanoparticles on thin films of TiO2 to increase the efficiency of dye-sensitized solar cells and improve the annealing process. TiO2 thin films with nanoparticle photoelectrodes were fabricated in individual units for use in dye-sensitized solar cells. The characteristics of dye-sensitized solar cells were compared to those of the prepared TiO2 photoelectrode with and without nanoparticles. The dye-sensitized solar cells with silver nanoparticles showed a significant increase in the electric current density compared with the pure TiO2 dye-sensitized solar cell and improved the solar conversion efficiency to 27.89%. The increased density of electric current increased the extent of light absorption of the dye owing to the plasmon resonance of the nanoparticles at the local surfaces. This phenomenon led to increased light scattering, which in turn increased the current density of the dye-sensitized solar cells and improved the solar conversion efficiency.
We proposed and demonstrated the double layered metallic nano-hole structure using polystyrene beads process to enhance the sensitivity of surface plasmon resonance (SPR). The double layered SPR structures are calculated using the finite-difference time-domain (FDTD) method for the width, thickness, and period of the metallic nano-hole structures. The thickness of the metal film and the metallic nano-hole is 30 and 20 nm in the 214 nm wide nano-hole size, respectively. The double layered SPR structures are fabricated with monolayer polystyrene beads of 420 nm wide. The sensitivities of the conventional SPR sensor and the double layered SPR sensor are obtained to 42.2 and 52.1 degree/RIU, respectively.
We have investigated the optical properties of plamonic waveguide with tapered structure based on InP material for photonic integrated circuit(PIC). The proposed plasmonic waveguide is covered with the Ag thin film to generate the plasmonic wave on metallic interface. The optical characteristics of plasmonic waveguide were calculated using the three-dimensional finite-difference time-domain method. The plasmonic waveguide was fabricated with the lengths of 2 to 10 μm and the widths of 400 to 700 nm, respectively. The plasmonic mode and optical loss were measured. The optimum plasmonic length is 10 μm and widths are 600 and 700 nm in the fabricated waveguide. This plasmonic waveguide can be directly integrated with other conventional optical devices and can be essential building blocks of PIC.
In this paper, we have theoretically analyzed and designed a dielectric multi-layer sensor with a SPR (surface plasmon resonance) using analytical calculation and FDTD (finite difference time-domain) methods. The proposed structure is composed of periodic layer and thin metal film. It has many advantages. One of that is a high sensitivity of the SPR. Another is a high Q-factor of the characteristics in the PhC (photonic crystals) micro-cavity structure. The incident light has double resonance characteristics, because the filtered light by PhC structure, dielectric multi-layer, is met the thin metal film for SPR effect. We have also observed the change of resonance characteristics according to the variation of effective index on the metal film.