Light-induced structural phase behaviour of metal nanoparticle materials

Light Weight Active Structural Materials

Optical Forces Induced by Metal Nanoparticle Clusters

The strong field localization generated between closely placed metal particles excited by electromagnetic radiation induces intense forces on small polarizable objects. In this study we investigate the optical forces that can be generated in the vicinity of metal nanoparticle clusters using fully electrodynamic numerical simulations. The influence of the cluster configuration as well as of the ...

Asymmetric light reflectance from metal nanoparticle arrays on dielectric surfaces

Asymmetric light reflectance associated with localized surface plasmons excited in metal nanoparticles on a quartz substrate is observed and analyzed. This phenomenon is explained by the superposition of two waves, the wave reflected by the air/quartz interface and that reflected by the metal nanoparticles, and the resulting interference effects. Far field behavior investigation suggests that z...

Light Induced Further Agglomeration of Metal Particles

The observation of an unusual light-induced agglomeration phenomenon that occurs besides the trapping of the gold nanoparticles aggregates (GNAs) has been observed. The observed agglomerate has a 60-100 μm donut-shaped metal microstructure with the rate of formation dependent on the laser power used. In this paper, the forces involved and the mechanism of this further agglomeration phenomenon a...

Security authentication using phase-encoded nanoparticle structures and polarized light.

Phase-encoded nanostructures such as quick response (QR) codes made of metallic nanoparticles are suggested to be used in security and authentication applications. We present a polarimetric optical method able to authenticate random phase-encoded QR codes. The system is illuminated using polarized light, and the QR code is encoded using a phase-only random mask. Using classification algorithms,...