Metal Nanostructures : From Chemistry at the nanoscale to exalted spectroscopies
Résumé
For fifteen years, the metal nanoparticles present an increasing interest due to their varied and complex optical properties. These properties are mainly governed by collective oscillations of conduction electrons called "plasmons". In particular, the excitation of the plasmon resonance by optical fields leads to a local exaltation of the electromagnetic field close to the nanoparticle. Such very intense nanosource paves the way for numerous applications: controlling, manipulating and amplifying the light at the nanoscale. In this talk, I will first present all the nanofabrication techniques developed in our group to obtain metal or hybrid nanostructures. Furthermore, I will present some applications of these nanoscale sources. The first approach that we are developing for several years is the characterization of metal nanoparticles using molecular probes (photopolymerizable solution, molecular photomotor ...). Thus, we can jointly characterize physical properties (optical or thermal) of metallic nanoparticles and understand the chemistry of polymerizable systems at small scales. Moreover, we are also developing approaches to increase the local field for exalted spectroscopies (Raman or fluorescence).