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With polarized and angle-resolved Raman spectroscopy studies on single two-dimensional layered perovskites (2DLP) flakes with different ammonium molecules as organic cations, in 2020 we revealed the very rich phonon spectra in the low-frequency regime. Although the phonon bands at low frequency can generally be attributed to the vibrations of the inorganic lattice, we found very different phonon spectra for the same lead-bromide octahedra composition by only changing the type of the organic cations. In addition, the intensity of the different phonon modes depended strongly on the angle of the linearly polarized excitation beam with respect to the in-plane axes of the octahedra lattice. In 2022, we mapped this angular dependence of the phonon modes, which enabled to identify the directionality of the different lattice vibrations. By correlating the phonon spectra with the temperature-dependent emission for a set of 2DLPs that featured very different STE emission, we demonstrated that the exciton relaxation cannot be related to coupling with a single (longitudinal optical) phonon band, and that several phonon bands should be involved in the emission process. We performed angle-resolved polarized emission and Raman spectroscopy on the same two-dimensional lead iodide perovskite microcrystals, which revealed the impact of the organic cations on the linear polarization of the emission, and corroborated our interpretation that multiple phonon bands should be involved in the radiative recombination process. Our studies revealed a wealth of highly directional low-frequency phonons in 2DLPs from which several bands are involved in the emission process, which leads to diverse optical and vibrational properties depending on the type of organic cation in the material., Comment: 36 pages, 8 figures and 1 table

Solid-state nanopore gating inspired by biological ion channels is gaining increasing traction due to a large range of applications in biosensing and drug delivery. Integration of stimuli-responsive molecules such as poly(N-isopropylacrylamide) (PNIPAM) inside nanopores can enable temperature-dependent gating, which so far has only been demonstrated using external heaters. In this work, we combine plasmonic resonators inside the nanopore architecture with PNIPAM to enable optical gating of individual or multiple nanopores with micrometer resolution and a switching speed of few milliseconds by thermo-plasmonics. We achieve a temperature change of 40 kelvin per millisecond and demonstrate the efficacy of this method using nanopore ionic conductivity measurements that enables selective activation of individual nanopores in an array. Moreover, the selective gating of specific nanopores in an array can set distinct ionic conductance levels: low, medium, and high (i.e., 0, 1, and 2), which could be exploited for logical gating with optical signal control. Such selective optical gating in nanopore arrays marks a breakthrough in nanofluidics, as it paves the way towards smart devices that offer multifunctional applications including biosensing, targeted drug delivery, and fluidic mixing.

Nanopore sensing is a key technology for single-molecule detection and analysis. Solid-state nanopores have emerged as a versatile platform, since their fabrication allows to engineer their properties by controlling size, shape, and chemical functionalization. However, lithography-based fabrication approaches for non-planar nanopores-on-chip rely on polymers that have limits with respect to hard- and robustness, durability, and refractive index. In this respect, nanopores made of metal oxides with high dielectric constant would be much more favourable and have the potential to extend the suitability of solid-state nanopores towards optoelectronic technologies. Here, we present a versatile method to fabricate three-dimensional nanopores of different dielectric oxides with controlled shapes. Our approach uses photoresist only as a template in the focused-ion-beam lithography to define the nanopore shape, which is subsequently coated with different oxides (SiO2, Al2O3, TiO2 and HfO2) by atomic-layer deposition. Then the photoresist is fully removed by chemo-physical treatment, resulting in nanopores entirely made from dielectric oxides on a thin solid-state membrane. Our methodology allows straightforward fabrication of convex, straight, and concave nanopore shapes that can be employed in various technologies and applications. We explored their performance as ionic nanochannels and investigated the dependence of the ionic current rectification on the nanopore geometry. We found hysteresis in the ionic conductance that enables potential applications of the nanopores in memristors. We also investigated the dielectric oxide nanopores for DNA sensing by measuring both cis-trans and trans-cis translocations and support our data with numerical simulations based on the Poisson-Nernst-Planck model.

Two-dimensional metal-halide perovskites are highly versatile for light-driven applications due to their exceptional variety in material composition, which can be exploited for tunability of mechanical and optoelectronic properties. The band edge emission is defined by structure and composition of both organic and inorganic layers, and electron-phonon coupling plays a crucial role in the recombination dynamics. However, the nature of the electron-phonon coupling and which kind of phonons are involved is still under debate. Here we investigate the emission, reflectance and phonon response from single two-dimensional lead-iodide microcrystals with angle-resolved polarized spectroscopy. We find an intricate dependence of the emission polarization with the vibrational directionality in the materials, which reveals that several bands of the low-frequency phonons with non-orthogonal directionality contribute to the band edge emission. Such complex electron-phonon coupling requires adequate models to predict the thermal broadening of the emission and provides opportunities to design its polarization properties., Comment: 22 pages, 4 figures

There is a high current interest for novel plasmonic platforms and materials able to extend their applicability into the ultraviolet (UV) region of the electromagnetic spectrum. In the UV it is possible to explore spectral properties of biomolecules with small cross section in the visible spectral range. However, most used metals in plasmonics have their resonances at wavelengths > 350 nm. Aluminum and rhodium are two interesting candidate materials for UV plasmonics, and in this work we developed a simple and low-cost preparation of functional substrates based on nanoporous aluminum decorated with rhodium nanoparticles. We demonstrate that these functionalized nanoporous metal films can be exploited as plasmonic materials suitable for enhanced UV Raman spectroscopy

Ionic Current Rectification (ICR) can appear in nanopores, causing a diode-like behavior that originates from different efficiency of ion transport through the pore channel with respect to the applied voltage bias polarity. This effect is particularly interesting for nanopores with a short channel length, that is smaller than 500 nm, because then the dependence of the ion current on the direction along which the ions pass through the channel is determined by the geometry and material of the nanopore, and by the ion concentration in the electrolyte. Surface charges can play an important role, and therefore nanopores consisting of multiple materials can induce ICR because of different charge distributions at the nanopore-electrolyte interface for the different material sections. In this work, we study four solid-state nanopore designs considering different geometries of charge distributions along the inner and outer surfaces of nanopores, and evaluate their impact on ICR with six different electrolytes. The direct comparison between experimental data and modeling enables to understand how the different surface charge configurations impact the ICR.

Nanoporous metals are a class of nanostructured materials finding extensive applications in multiple fields thanks to their unique properties attributed to their high surface area and interconnected nanoscale ligaments. They can be pre-pared following different strategies, but the deposition of an arbitrary pure porous metal is still challenging. Recently, a dry synthesis of nanoporous films based on the plasma treat-ment of metal thin layers deposited by physical vapour deposition has been demonstrated, as a general route to form pure nanoporous films from a large set of metals. An interest-ing aspect related to this approach is the possibility to apply the same methodology to deposit the porous films as a multilayer. In this way, it is possible to explore the properties of different porous metals in close contact. As demonstrated in this paper, interesting plasmonic properties emerge in a nanoporous Au-Ag bi-layer. The versatility of the method coupled with the possibility to include many different metals, provides an opportunity to tailor their optical resonances and to exploit the chemical and mechanical properties of compo-nents, which is of great interest to applications ranging from sensing, to photochemistry and photocatalysis.

The field of plasmonics is capable of enabling interesting applications in the different wavelength ranges, spanning from the ultraviolet up to the infrared. The choice of plasmonic material and how the material is nanostructured have significant implications for ultimate performance of any plasmonic device. Artificially designed nanoporous metals have interesting material properties including large specific surface area, distinctive optical properties, high electrical conductivity, and reduced stiffness, implying their potentials for many applications. This manuscript reviews the wide range of available nanoporous metals, mainly focusing on their properties as plasmonic materials. While extensive reports on the use and characterization of NPMs exist, a detailed discussion on their connection with surface plasmons and enhanced spectroscopies as well as photocatalysis is missing. Here, we report on different metals investigated, from the most used nanoporous gold to mixed metal compounds, and discuss each of these plasmonic materials suitability for a range of structural design and applications. Finally, we discuss the potentials and limitations of the traditional and alternative plasmonic materials for applications in enhanced spectroscopy and photocatalysis.

We show that plasmonic solid-state nanopores with tunable hole diameter can be prepared via a photocatalytic effect resulting from the enhanced electromagnetic field inside a metallic ring prepared on top of a dielectric nanotube. Under white light illumination, the maximum field intensity in these nanorings induces a site selective metal nucleation and growth. We used this approach to prepare bare Au and bimetallic Au-Ag nanorings and demonstrate the reduction of the initial inner diameter of the nanopore down to 4 nanometers. This process can be applied over large arrays with good reproducibility and good control on the nanopore diameter. The tunability of the nanopore diameter can be used to enable optimized detection of single entities with different size, such as single nanoparticles or biomolecules. As proof-of-concept, we demonstrate the versatility of the platform to perform single object detection of dsDNA, and Au nanoparticles with a diameter of 15 nm and 30 nm. We support our experimental findings with numerical simulations that provide insights into the electromagnetic field intensity distribution, showing that a field intensity enhancement of up to 104 can be achieved inside the nanopores. This strong field confinement inside the final nanopore can be used to perform enhanced optical measurements, and to generate local heating, thereby modifying the ionic conductance of the nanopore

Atomistically detailed computational studies of nanocrystals, such as those derived from the promising lead-halide perovskites, are challenging due to the large number of atoms and lack of symmetries to exploit. Here, focusing on methylammonium lead iodide nanocrystals, we combine a real-space tight binding model with the GW approximation to the self-energy and obtain exciton wavefunctions and absorption spectra via solutions of the associated Bethe-Salpeter equation. We find that the size dependence of carrier confinement, dielectric contrast, electron-hole exchange, and exciton binding energies has a strong impact on the lowest excitation energy, which can be tuned by almost 1 eV over the diameter range of 2-6 nm. Our calculated excitation energies are about 0.2 eV higher than experimentally measured photoluminescence, and they display the same qualitative size dependence. Focusing on the fine structure of the band-edge excitons, we find that the lowest-lying exciton is spectroscopically dark and about 20-30 meV lower in energy than the higher-lying triplet of bright states, whose degeneracy is slightly broken by crystal field effects., Comment: 8 pages, 4 figures