We investigate the polymer packing around nanoparticles and polymer/nanoparticle topological constraints (entanglements) in nanocomposites containing spherical nanoparticles in comparison to pure polymer melts using molecular dynamics (MD) simulations. The polymer-nanoparticle attraction leads to good dispersion of nanoparticles. We observe an increase in the number of topological constraints (...

Classical continuum elastic calculations show that the acoustic vibrational modes of an embedded nanoparticle can be lightly damped even when the longitudinal plane wave acoustic impedances Z(o)=rhov(L) of the nanoparticle and the matrix are the same. It is not necessary for the matrix to be less dense or softer than the nanoparticle in order to have long lived vibrational modes. A corrected fo...

Magnetic γ-Fe(2)O(3) nanoparticle toluene solution was placed in a restricted, axially symmetric geometry composed of a spherical lens on a Si substrate (i.e., sphere-on-Si geometry), forming a capillary-held solution. The solvent evaporation led to the self-assembly of γ- Fe(2)O(3) nanoparticles into hundreds of spatially well-ordered, gradient concentric 'coffee rings'. The rings were two nan...

We review a self-assembled growth method for plasmonic nanoparticle arrays, based on glancing angle deposition. We produced ordered Ag, Au, and Cu nanoparticle arrays over large areas on different stepped oxide templates. Precise control over the final geometry can be difficult and we provide recipes to obtain macroscopically ordered structures. We discuss the influence of the adsorbate diffusi...

We use molecular dynamics simulations to study the crystallization of spherical nucleic-acid (SNA) gold nanoparticle conjugates, guided by sequence-specific DNA hybridization events. Binary mixtures of SNA gold nanoparticle conjugates (inorganic core diameter in the 8-15 nm range) are shown to assemble into BCC, CsCl, AlB(2), and Cr(3)Si crystalline structures, depending upon particle stoichiom...

We investigate optical properties of a new complex plasmonic nanostructure, which consists of a spherical metallic nanoshell and a small metallic nanoparticle ("nanoknob") situated on its surface. The plasmon resonance wavelength of the entire structure is guided by the geometrical and material properties of the nanoshell whereas the electromagnetic field of the incident light is localized and ...

A quantum mechanical theory of the rate of excitation energy transfer from a fluorescent dye molecule to the surface plasmonic modes of a spherical metal nanoparticle is presented. The theory predicts the distance dependence of the transfer rate to vary as 1/d(sigma), with sigma=3-4 at intermediate distances, in partial agreement with the recent experimental results. Förster's 1/d(6) dependence...

We propose a family of exact solutions of Maxwell's equations to model some aspects of the imaging process involved in the scanning surface plasmon microscope (SSPM). More precisely, we compute the SSPM response of a spherical nanoparticle immobilized close to a thin gold layer and illuminated by a tightly focused spot. We discuss the influence of parameters such as the defocus and the width of...

Nanoparticles often self-assemble into hexagonal-close-packed (hcp) structures although it is predicted to be less stable than face-centered-cubic (fcc) packing in hard-sphere models. In addition to close-packed fcc and hcp superlattices, we observe formation of nonclose-packed simple-hexagonal (sh) superlattices of nearly spherical PbS, PbSe, and gamma-Fe2O3 nanocrystals. This surprisingly ric...