In a paper, recently published in Nature Communications with researchers from NanoLund and Lund Laser Centre, the ultrafast optical dynamics of porous gold nanosponges filled with zinkoxide was studied. This type of hybrid plasmon-emitter system could be useful for future optical computers as they are able to strongly amplify laser light. The study provides fundamental new insights into how hybrid metal-semiconductor nanostructures amplify light and will help develop materials with even better optical properties.
Few-femtosecond time-resolved photoelectron emission microscopy revealed multiple long-lived localized plasmonic hot spot modes in the pores of the nanosponges, that were resonant in a broad spectral range. The strong, local plasmonic near-field couples to the ZnO excitons, enhancing sum-frequency generation from individual hot spots and boosting resonant excitonic emission.
The research was done in collaboration with two German universities: Carl von Ossietzky Universität Oldenburg och Teknische Universität Ilmenau.
Read the popular news article on Lund University website (in Swedish).