Annalen der Physik

This work is related to the development of an integrated Surface Plasmon Resonance (SPR) sensor on silicon platform. The optical properties of metallic nanogratings fabricated on the semiconductor structure allow direct plasmonic detection in transmission mode. Specially designed angular interrogation method provides a periodic signal with phase dependent on the conditions of surface plasmon excitation. Proposed technique leads to sensitivity better than 10⁻⁶ RIU for conventional SPR Kretschmann configuration and was tested on the integrated Si-based nanoplasmonic chip. Developed concept is promising for low-cost mono and multi -sensing applications by portable or stationary platforms.

Heterogeneous gas-solid catalyst reactions occur on the atomic scale and there is increasing evidence single atoms and very small clusters can act as primary active sites in chemical reactions. Aberration corrected environmental scanning transmission electron microscope (AC ESTEM) has been developed for novel studies of nanoparticle catalysts with Angstrom (0.1 nm) resolution in gas. It extends high vacuum analyses with full analytical facilities and unrestricted high angle annular dark field (HAADF) imaging of single atoms, small clusters and nanoparticles in dynamic in-situ experiments with controlled gas reaction environments at initial operating temperatures up to > 500 °C.

A brief overview on determination of the values of fundamental constants by means of atomic physics is given. Recommended values of CODATA-2010 least square adjustment are discussed as well as the related input data.

This paper describes steady-state ensembles of thermally excited electromagnetic radiation in nano-scale layered media with a constant non-vanishing heat flux across the layers. It is shown that Planck's law of thermal radiation, the principle of equivalence, and the laws of wave propagation in layered media, imply that in order for the ensemble of thermally excited electromagnetic fields to exist in a medium consisting of a stack of layers between two half-space, the net heat flux across the layers must exceed a certain threshold that is determined by the temperatures of the half spaces and by the reflective properties of the entire structure. The obtained results provide a way for estimating the radiative heat transfer coefficient of nano-scale layered structures.