Raman spectroscopic investigation of pure and ytterbium-doped rare earth silicate crystals

Raman spectroscopy was used to study the molecular structure of a series of selected rare earth (RE) silicate crystals including Y2SiO5 (YSO), LU2SiO5 (LSO), (Lu0.5Y0.5)(2)SiO5 (LYSO) and their ytterbium-doped samples. Raman spectra show resolved bands below 500 cm(-1) region assigned to the modes of SiO4 and oxygen vibrations. Multiple bands indicate the nonequivalence of the RE-O bonds and the lifting of the degeneracy of the RE ion vibration. Low intensity bands below 500 cm(-1) are an indication of impurities. The (SiO4)(4-) tetrahedra are characterized by bands near 200 cm(-1) which show a separation of the components of nu(4) and nu(2), in the 500-700 cm(-1) region which are attributed to the distorting bending vibration and in the 880-1000 cm(-1) region which are attributed to the symmetric and antisymmetric stretching vibrational modes. The majority of the bands in the 300-610 cm(-1) region of Re2SiO5 were found to arise from vibrations involving both Si and RE ions, indicating that there is considerable mixing of Si displacements with Si-O bending modes and RE-0 stretching modes. The Raman spectra of RE silicate crystals were analyzed in terms of the molecular structure of the crystals, which enabled separation of the bands attributed to distinct vibrational units. Copyright (C) 2007 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.

Raman scattering of non-planar graphite: arched edges, polyhedral crystals, whiskers and cones

Planar graphite has been extensively studied by Raman scattering for years. A comparative Raman study of several different and less common non-planar graphitic materials is given here. New kinds of graphite whiskers and tubular graphite cones (synthetic and natural) have been introduced. Raman spectroscopy has been applied to the characterization of natural graphite crystal edge planes, an individual graphite whisker graphite polyhedral crystals and tubular graphite cones. Almost all of the observed Raman modes were assigned according to the selection rules and the double-resonance Raman mechanism. The polarization properties related to the structural features, the line shape of the first-order dispersive mode and its combination modes, the frequency variation of some modes in different carbon materials and other unique Raman spectral features are discussed here in detail.

NIP a-Si : H solar cells on stanless steel with p-type nc-Si : H window layer

The successful application of boron-doped hydrogenated nanocrystalline silicon as window layer in a-Si: H nip solar cells on stainless steel foil with a thickness of 0.05 mm is reported. Open circuit voltage and fill factor of the fabricated solar cell were 0.90V and 0.70 respectively. The optical and structural properties of the p-layers have been investigated by using UV-VIS and Raman spectroscopy. It is confirmed that the p-layer is hydrogenated nanocrystalline silicon with a wide optical gap due to quantum size effect.

Raman spectra of SiC nanorods with different excitation wavelengths

With increasing excitation wavelength from 514 to 782 mn, a significant difference in the Raman spectra of SIC nanorods was observed as compared to bulk material. The intensity ratio of the LO mode to that of the IF mode increases with the excitation wavelength increasing. This has been identified as resonant Raman scattering caused by Frohlich interaction.

二维纳米粒子阵列的制备及其拉曼光谱研究

随着纳米科学的迅速发展，金属纳米粒子以其独特的性能己被广泛应用于各学科的研究，由此发展起来的纳米物理、纳米化学、纳米材料和纳米电子学等新兴领域已经成为十分活跃的前沿研究方向。在纳米粒子的许多应用中，如：作为电子和光学器件中的结构组分，表面增强光谱中的基底，生物和化学传感器，都需要把纳米粒子固定在一个基底上构筑成一维，二维或三维有序的结构。本论文通过合成不同性质的金、银纳米粒子，采用自组装技术，在金属，玻璃和导电玻璃的表面成功构筑了有序的纳米结构，并研究由此带来的一系列新颖的光学性质及其作为新型的增强基底在表面增强拉曼光谱中的应用。本论文主要研究内容和结论如下：1、通过合成粒度分布均匀，性能稳定的金属银溶胶，利用自组装技术在玻璃表面成功构筑银纳米粒子的二维亚单层结构，利用UV一visible技术，发现在组装结构中银纳米粒子之间的相互作用对偶极子表面等离子体共振有较大的影响，这也可能意味着相邻银粒子间电磁场的增强与银粒子的偶极子模式间的偶合密切相关。2、利用自组装方法，分别在工T0电极和光滑银基底表面构筑了银纳米粒子有序结构，通过与分子吸附在粗糙银电极表面得到的增强拉曼光谱比较，在有序银纳米粒子组装体中藕联分子的拉曼散射得到很大增强，其特征谱峰的峰位置和强度都有变化。组装体中祸联分子对琉基苯胺（PATP）拉曼散射的增强归因于银粒子和银表面之间的电磁祸合，并且电磁场主要集中在银粒子和银基底表面之间的这一区域，即银粒子的局域等离子体（LSP）与银基底的表面等离子激元（SPP）的祸合作用。3、合成具有不同化学性质的银纳米粒子，利用对琉基苯胺作为祸联分子在光滑银基底表面构筑了Ag/PATP／Ag银纳米粒子二维组装阵列。利用表面增强拉曼光谱技术发现银溶胶中不同性质的银纳米粒子，即银溶胶纳米粒子表面吸附的阴离子对藕联分子与银基底之间的电荷传递有着重要的影响。4、利用表面增强拉曼光谱技术，发现苯功能衍生物：苯硫酚，对琉基苯胺和对苯硫酚在粗糙银电极上有着不同的吸附取向：苯硫酚是直立吸附，对琉基苯胺则是垂直吸附在银表面，而对苯硫酚采取平躺的吸附构像。5、利用电化学沉积法，在对琉基苯胺修饰的光滑的银电极表面构筑了银纳米粒子的有序二维结构，通过与利用自组装方法构筑的银粒子阵列中祸联分子表面增强拉曼光谱的研究比较，发现银离子在吸附层修饰的银电极表面进行电化学沉积可能采取两种机理：在双电层附近，溶液中的阴离子参予了整个过程，银粒子与基底之间存在静电吸引作用；银离子直接在吸附分子的氨基表面还原并成键，然后进一步的生长。6、利用电化学沉积法，在金纳米粒子表面沉积了一层汞，SEM，UV－vis及电化学实验证明在具有修饰层的导电玻璃（PVP一ITO）电极上成功合成了汞包金纳米粒子阵列，将汞电极表面的研究拓展到了分子水平。利用金纳米粒子产生的增强电磁场可以研究吸附在汞包金纳米粒子上的分子的表面增强拉曼光谱，简单分子对琉基苯胺在金纳米粒子阵列及汞包金纳米粒子阵列上采取同样的吸附方式，而复杂分子结晶紫在汞包金纳米粒子上采取一种接近平躺的方式吸附，而在金纳米粒子表面则是倾斜吸附的方式。进一步将汞包金纳米粒子阵列电极应用到分子的现场谱学中，从而为更好的理解汞电极上的电化学过程打下了基础。

A RESONANT RAMAN-STUDY ON PHONONS IN GAINAS/ALINAS MULTIPLE-QUANTUM WELLS

The LO phonon modes in the barrier layers of a GaInAs/AlInAs multiple quantum well structure are investigated by resonance Raman scattering (RRS), the excitation laser photon energy tuned to resonate with the above barrier interband transition energy. The resonance enhancement of LO phonon peaks are shown to be caused by Frohlich electron-phonon interaction. The pressure-dependent profiles for both AlAs-like (LO(2) mode) and InAs-like (LO(1) mode) Raman peak intensities are well fitted by the Gaussian lineshape. The shift between these two profiles can be explained by the outgoing RRS mechanism, providing information on the pressure-induced shift of the excitonic transition energy. The amplitude ratios of the two profiles are close to 1, showing a well defined two-mode behavior and the nearly equal polarizability for Al-As and In-As bonds in AlInAs alloy.

Raman investigation of ion-implanted ZnO films

ZnO thin films were implanted at room temperature with 80 keV N+ or 400 keV Xe+ ions. The implantation fluences of N+ and Xe+ ranged from 5.0 x 10(14) to 1.0 x 10(17)/cm(2), and from 2.0 x 10(14) to 5.0 x 10(15)/cm(2), respectively. The samples were analyzed using Raman spectroscopy and the Raman scattering modes of the N- and Xe-ion implanted samples varying with implantation fluences were investigated. It was found that Raman peaks (bands) at 130 and 578 cm(-1) appeared in the spectra of ion-implanted ZnO samples, which are independent of the ion species, whereas a new peak at 274 cm(-1) was found only in N-ion implanted samples, and Raman band at 470 cm(-1) was found clearly in Xe-ion implanted samples. The relative intensity (peak area) increased with the increasing of the implantation fluences. From the comparison of the Raman spectra of N- and Xe-ion implanted ZnO samples and considering the damage induced by the ions, we analyzed the origin of the observed new Raman peaks (bands) and discussed the structure changes of ZnO films induced by N- and Xe-ion implantations.

Electrochemical polymerization and characterization of polypyrrole nanowires and nanotubules

Polypyrrole nanostructure arrays, including simultaneously large quantities of nanowires and small quantities of partially filled nanotubules have been electrochemically synthesized in home-made etched ion-track polycarbonate (PC) templates. Diameter of the prepared nanostructures varies from 45 to 320 nm with their lengths up to 30 microns. Morphological studies of these nanostructures were performed by field emission scanning electron microscopy (FESEM), high resolution transmission electron microscopy (HRTEM) and Raman spectroscopy. While optical absorption properties were studied by ultraviolet-visible-near infrared spectrophotometry (UV-vis-NIR). It has been observed that the absorption maximum of polypyrrole shifts to the longer wavelength side as the diameter of these nanostructures (nanowires and nanotubules) increases. (C) 2010 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.

A novel form of carbon micro-balls from coal

A novel form of ball-like carbon material with its size in micrometer range was prepared from coal with nickel as catalyst by arc plasma method. The carbon material has been systematically studied by scanning electron microscopy (SEM), energy dispersive spectroscopy (EDS), X-ray diffraction (XRD) and ultraviolet laser Raman spectroscopy. The SEM observation shows that the novel carbon material exists in various forms such as individual balls, net-like and plate-like forms, all of which have a quite smooth surface. The diameters of these carbon spheres are quite uniform and in a narrow range of 10-20 mum. The EDS analysis reveals that the ball-like carbon material contains more than 99.5% of carbon and a little amount of other elements such as nickel, silicon and aluminum, The XRD and UV-Raman results reveal that the novel carbon material is a kind of highly graphitized carbon. The growth mechanism of the ball-like carbon material was proposed and discussed in terms of arc plasma parameters and the chemical structure of coal-based carbon. (C) 2002 Elsevier Science Ltd. All rights reserved.

Adsorption of 4,4 '-thiobisbenzenethiol on silver surfaces: surface-enhanced Raman scattering study

Adsorption of 4,4'-thiobisbenzenethiol (4,4'-TBBT) on a colloidal silver surface and a roughened silver electrode surface was investigated by means of surface-enhanced Raman scattering (SERS) for the first time, which indicates that 4,4'-TBBT is chemisorbed on the colloidal silver surface as dithiolates by losing two H-atoms of the S-H bond, while as monothiolates on the roughened silver electrode. The different orientations of the molecules on both silver surfaces indicate the different adsorption behaviors of 4,4'-TBBT in the two systems.

Gold nanoparticle-based surface enhanced Raman scattering spectroscopic assay for the detection of protein-protein interactions

In the present work, a sensitive spectroscopic assay based on surface-enhanced Raman spectroscopy (SERS) using gold nanoparticles as substrates was developed for the rapid detection protein-protein interactions. Detection is achieved by specific binding biotin-modification antibodies with protein-stabilized 30 nm gold nanoparticles, followed by the attachment of avidin-modification Raman-active dyes. As a proof-of-principle experiment, a well-known biomolecular recognition system, IgG with protein A, was chosen to establish this new spectroscopic assay. Highly selective recognition of IgG down to 1 ng/ml in solution has been demonstrated.

Self-assembly of lambda-DNA networks/Ag nanoparticles: Hybrid architecture and active-SERS substrate

In this article, highly rough and stable surface enhanced Raman scattering (SERS)-active substrates had been fabricated by a facile layer by-layer technique. Unique lambda-DNA networks and CTAB capped silver nanoparticles (AgNP) were alternatively self-assembled on the charged mica surface until a desirable number of bilayers were reached. The as-prepared hybrid architectures were characterized by UV-vis spectroscopy, tapping mode atomic force microscopy (AFM) and confocal Raman microscopy, respectively.

Ethanol-induced formation of silver nanoparticle aggregates for highly active SERS substrates and application in DNA detection

A controllable silver nanoparticle aggregate system has been synthesized by adding different amounts of ethanol to cetyltrimethylammonium bromide (CTAB) capped silver nanoparticles (Ag-nps), which could be used as highly efficient surface-enhanced Raman scattering (SERS) active substrates. This ethanol-induced aggregation can be attributed to preferential dissolution of CTAB into ethanol, which leads a partial removal of the protective CTAB layer on Ag-nps. The optical and morphological properties of these aggregates under various volumes of ethanol were explored via UV-vis spectroscopy and atomic force microscopy.