FeAu mixing for high-temperature control of light scattering at the nanometer scale

Anna Nominé (1) , Ekaterina Gunina (2) , Semyon Bachinin (2) , Alexander Solomonov (2) , Mikhail Rybin (2, 3) , Sergei Shipilovskikh (2) , Salah-Eddine Benrazzouq (1) , J. Ghanbaja (1) , Thomas Gries (1) , S. Bruyere (1) , Alexandre Nominé, (1, 4, 5) , Thierry Belmonte (1) , Valentin Milichko (1, 2)

1 IJL - Institut Jean Lamour
2 ITMO University [Russia]
3 A.F. Ioffe Physical-Technical Institute
4 IJS - Jozef Stefan Institute [Ljubljana]
5 BIRD - Building artificial Intelligence between trust, Responsibility and Decision

Control of the optical properties of a nanoparticle (NP) through its structural changes underlies optical data processing, dynamic coloring, and smart sensing at the nanometer scale. Here, we report on the concept of controlling the light scattering by a NP through mixing of weakly miscible chemical elements (Fe and Au), supporting a thermal-induced phase transformation. The transformation corresponds to the transition from a homogeneous metastable solid solution phase of the (Fe,Au) NP towards an equilibrium biphasic Janus-type NP. We demonstrate that the phase transformation is thermally activated by laser heating up to a threshold of 800 °C (for NPs with a size of hundreds of nm), leading to the associated changes in the light scattering and color of the NP. The results thereby pave the way for the implementation of optical sensors triggered by a high temperature at the nanometer scale via NPs based on metal alloys.

Mots clés: light scattering; optical properties; nanoparticles; gold; iron; plasma; laser

Domaines: Matériaux; Optique / photonique

Anna Nominé, Ekaterina Gunina, Semyon Bachinin, Alexander Solomonov, Mikhail Rybin, et al.. FeAu mixing for high-temperature control of light scattering at the nanometer scale. Nanoscale, 2023, 16 (5), pp.2289-2294. ⟨10.1039/D3NR05117J⟩. ⟨hal-04553441⟩