Silicon Nanoparticles Pave the Way Towards Nanoscale Light Emitters

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The scientists then tested how the intensity of the Raman emission depends on the diameter of a silicon particle. The intensity of the Raman emission was at a maximum at the resonant diameter of the particle, which was entirely consistent with the theory the authors had developed. The intensity of Raman emission of resonant particles was more than 100 times greater than that of non-resonant particles with other diameters.

Figure 4. The experimentally measured (points) and theoretically predicted (lines) Raman emission enhancement spectrum for particles of different diameters. The maximum point corresponds to the excitation of magnetic dipole resonance of a silicon nanoparticle. Inset: the electric field distribution inside a resonant particle. Image courtesy of the authors of the study.

“The Raman effect is incredibly useful in practice, and will help not only in detecting microscopic amounts of chemical compounds, but also in transmitting information over long distances. Because of the pursuit for smaller electronic and optical devices, it is becoming increasingly important for us to look for nanostructures that are able to enhance this effect. Our observations have revealed a potential candidate – silicon nanoparticles,” said Denis Baranov, a post-graduate student of MIPT and one of the authors of the paper, when commenting on the results.

Silicon nanoparticles could serve as a basis for the development of miniature optical amplifiers for fibre optic networks. In the future, these particles could provide a platform for building a compact nanolaser using the stimulated Raman scattering, which offers prospects for very interesting applications in medicine and biomicroscopy. In particular, detecting signals of the Raman emission from particles in the human body will allow specialists to track the movement of drug molecules.

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