Self-Guided Assembly of Ligand-Free Rh–Os Nanotrees Revealing Plasmonic Branching Pathways, Tip-Enhanced Field Localization, and Femtosecond-Induced Third-Order Nonlinear Optical Effects
摘要
Branched Rh−Os nanotrees, which are synthesized through a surfactant- and seed-free colloidal procedure, have anisotropic structures measuring 80–150 nm and 15–25 nm, respectively. High-resolution TEM and XPS render bimetallic alloy formation with small oxidation. UV–Vis-NIR spectra show that the broadband absorptions have plasmonic shoulders at ~ 520 nm and ~ 780 nm due to transverse and longitudinal localized surface plasmon resonances. The structures exhibit reverse saturable absorption, a nonlinear absorption coefficient of 7.3 × 10−8 cm/W, and an optical limiting threshold of 0.70 GW/cm2 under 800-nm femtosecond laser excitation. The simulations conducted using the finite-difference time-domain (FDTD) method demonstrate more than a 15-fold increase in field conditions at the tips of branches and junction points, whereas the calculated density functional theory (DFT) shows a high density of the d-band near the Fermi level. All these effects present a very bright third-order nonlinear optical response. The research presents the value of morphology-based localization in fields and alloy synergies, which makes Rh−Os nanotrees a potential use in ultrafast optical and nonlinear optical limitation.