Infrared photoconductivity and photovoltaic response from nanoscale domains of PbS alloyed with thorium and oxygen.

Thin films of lead sulfide alloyed with thorium and oxygen were deposited on GaAs substrates and processed to produce a photo-diode structure. Structural, optical and electrical characterizations indicate the presence of small nanoscale domains (NDs) that are characterized by dense packaging, high quality interfaces and a blue-shift of the energy bandgap toward the short wavelength infrared range of the spectrum. Photocurrent spectroscopy revealed a considerable photoconductivity that is correlated with excitation of carriers in the NDs of lead sulfide alloyed with thorium and oxygen. Furthermore, the appearance of a photovoltaic effect under near infrared illumination indicates a quasi-type II band alignment at the interface of the GaAs and the film of NDs.

Digital laser printing of metal/metal-oxide nano-composites with tunable electrical properties.

We study the electrical properties of aluminum structures printed by the laser forward transfer of molten, femtoliter droplets in air. The resulting printed material is an aluminum/aluminum-oxide nano-composite. By controlling the printing conditions, and thereby the droplet volume, its jetting velocity and duration, it is possible to tune the electrical resistivity to a large extent. The material resistivity depends on the degree of oxidation which takes place during jetting and on the formation of electrical contact points as molten droplets impact the substrate. Evidence for these processes is provided by FIB cross sections of printed structures.

Laser jetting of femto-liter metal droplets for high resolution 3D printed structures.

Laser induced forward transfer (LIFT) is employed in a special, high accuracy jetting regime, by adequately matching the sub-nanosecond pulse duration to the metal donor layer thickness. Under such conditions, an effective solid nozzle is formed, providing stability and directionality to the femto-liter droplets which are printed from a large gap in excess of 400 µm. We illustrate the wide applicability of this method by printing several 3D metal objects. First, very high aspect ratio (A/R > 20), micron scale, copper pillars in various configuration, upright and arbitrarily bent, then a micron scale 3D object composed of gold and copper. Such a digital printing method could serve the generation of complex, multi-material, micron-scale, 3D materials and novel structures.

Enhancement in the excitonic spontaneous emission rates for Si nanocrystal multi-layers covered with thin films of Au, Ag, and Al.

The enhancement in the spontaneous emission rate (SER) for Ag, Au, and Al films on multilayer Si nanocrystals (SiNCs) was probed with time-resolved cathodoluminescence (CL). The SiNCs were grown on Si(100) using plasma enhanced chemical vapor deposition. Electron-hole pairs were generated in the metal-covered SiNCs by injecting a pulsed high-energy electron beam through the thin metal films, which is found to be an ideal method of excitation for plasmonic quantum heterostructures and nanostructures that are opaque to laser or light excitation. Spatially, spectrally, and temporally resolved CL was used to measure the excitonic lifetime of the SiNCs in metal-covered and bare regions of the same samples. The observed enhancement in the SER for the metal-covered SiNCs, relative to the SER for the bare sample, is attributed to a coupling of the SiNC excitons with surface plasmon polaritons (SPPs) of the thin metal films. A maximum SER enhancement of ∼2.0, 1.4 and 1.2 was observed for the Ag, Au, and Al films, respectively, at a temperature of 55 K. The three chosen plasmonic metals of Ag, Au, and Al facilitate an interesting comparison of the exciton-SPP coupling for metal films that exhibit varying differences between the surface plasmon energy, ω(sp), and the SiNC excitonic emission energy. A modeling of the temperature dependence of the Purcell enhancement factor, Fp, was performed and included the temperature dependence of the dielectric properties of the metals.

Resonant coupling between surface vibrations and electronic states in silicon nanocrystals at the strong confinement regime.

A striking correlation between infrared photoinduced absorption spectra and the photoluminescence from silicon nanocrystals indicates that quantized electronic sublevels of the nanocrystals are resonantly coupled to surface vibrational modes via a polarization field produced by coherent longitudinal polar vibrations. Our experimental results and model support the assumption that the mechanism responsible for the efficient photoluminescence from silicon nanocrystals should be assigned to inhibition of nonradiative channels rather than enhancement of radiative channels.