Polarization-Sensitive Photoluminescence from Aligned Carbon Chains Terminated by Gold Clusters.

We synthesize a thin film composed of long carbyne chains terminated by gold clusters and study its optical properties. The presence of gold particles stabilizes longer chains and leads to their alignment. We show that the gold clusters also act as a source of electron doping, thus, changing the intensity of photoluminescence from quadratic dependence on the pumping intensity without gold to linear with gold. We also observe that the excitation of the film at the gold plasmon frequency causes the blue shift of photoluminescence and estimate, on the basis of this effect, the minimum length of the carbyne chains. The high degree of alignment of the gold-terminated carbyne chains results in strongly anisotropic light absorption characterized by a distinctive cosine dependence on the angle between the carbyne molecule and polarization plane of the excitation. This paves the way for a new class of ultimately thin polarization sensitive emitters to be used in future integrated quantum photonics devices.

Direct laser writing of µ-chips based on hybrid C-Au-Ag nanoparticles for express analysis of hazardous and biological substances.

Micro-chips based on organic-inorganic hybrid nanoparticles (NPs) composed of nanoalloys of gold (Au) and silver (Ag) embedded in an amorphous carbonaceous matrix (C-Au-Ag NPs) were prepared directly on a substrate by the laser-induced deposition (for short: LID) method. The C-Au-Ag NPs show a unique plasmon resonance which enhances Raman scattering of analytes, making the µ-chips suitable to detect ultra-low-volumes (10(-12) liter) and concentrations (10(-9) M) of bio-agents and a hazardous compound. These micro-chips constitute a novel, flexible solid-state device that can be used for applications in point-of-care diagnostics, consumer electronics, homeland security and environmental monitoring.

Laser-induced transformation of supramolecular complexes: approach to controlled formation of hybrid multi-yolk-shell Au-Ag@a-C:H nanostructures.

In the present work an efficient approach of the controlled formation of hybrid Au-Ag-C nanostructures based on laser-induced transformation of organometallic supramolecular cluster compound is suggested. Herein the one-step process of the laser-induced synthesis of hybrid multi-yolk-shell Au-Ag@a-C:H nanoparticles which are bimetallic gold-silver subnanoclusters dispersed in nanospheres of amorphous hydrogenated a-C:H carbon is reported in details. It has been demonstrated that variation of the experimental parameters such as type of the organometallic precursor, solvent, deposition geometry and duration of laser irradiation allows directed control of nanoparticles' dimension and morphology. The mechanism of Au-Ag@a-C:H nanoparticles formation is suggested: the photo-excitation of the precursor molecule through metal-to-ligand charge transfer followed by rupture of metallophilic bonds, transformation of the cluster core including red-ox intramolecular reaction and aggregation of heterometallic species that results in the hybrid metal/carbon nanoparticles with multi-yolk-shell architecture formation. It has been found that the nanoparticles obtained can be efficiently used for the Surface-Enhanced Raman Spectroscopy label-free detection of human serum albumin in low concentration solution.

Magnon-enhanced phonon damping at Gd(0001) and Tb(0001) surfaces using femtosecond time-resolved optical second-harmonic generation.

Damping of coherent optical phonons is investigated by femtosecond time-resolved second-harmonic generation at Gd(0001) and Tb(0001) surfaces. At low temperature the damping rate increases monotonically with temperature, but close to the Curie point the damping rate is strongly reduced. We explain this behavior by phonon-magnon scattering originating from spin-orbit coupling proven by a larger effect for Tb than for Gd. Consideration of phonon-electron and phonon-phonon scattering shows that magnon-mediated damping is dominant almost up to the Curie temperature.