We present a very simple and effective way for the synthesis of tunable coloured silver sols having different morphologies. The procedure is based on the seed-mediated growth approach where methyl cellulose (MC) has been used as soft-template in the growth solution. Nanostructures of varying morphologies as well as colour of the silver sols are controlled by altering the concentration of citrat...

Composition of the Comet dust obtained by the dust impact analyzer on the Halley probes indicated that the comet dust is a mixture of silicate and carbonaceous material. The collected interplanetary dust particles (IDP’s) are fluffy and composite, having grains of several different types stuck together. Using Discrete Dipole Approximation (DDA) we study the scattering properties of composite gr...

Interstellar extinction curve E(λ-V)/E(B-V) vs 1/λ is evaluated in the spectral range 3.4 μm and 0.1 μm using the extinction efficiencies of the porous silicate and graphite grains. The extinction efficiencies of the porous silicate and graphite grains are computed using the discrete dipole approximation (DDA). The model curves are compared with the average observed interstellar extinction curv...

Gold nanostars (NStars) are highly attractive for biological applications due to their surface chemistry, facile synthesis and optical properties. Here, we synthesize NStars in HEPES buffer at different HEPES/Au ratios, producing NStars of different sizes and shapes, and therefore varying optical properties. We measure the extinction coefficient of the synthesized NStars at their maximum surfac...

We have compared simulated and measured scattering matrices of a size distribution of olivine particles at wavelengths of 633 and 442 nm. The computations were carried out for size distributions of irregularly-shaped compact particles with different average projected areas using the discrete-dipole approximation (DDA). The results of the comparison show that the model of irregularly-shaped part...

DDSCAT.5a is a freely available software package which applies the “discrete dipole approximation” (DDA) to calculate scattering and absorption of electromagnetic waves by targets with arbitrary geometries and complex refractive index. The DDA approximates the target by an array of polarizable points. DDSCAT.5a requires that these polarizable points be located on a cubic lattice. DDSCAT.5a10 al...

Gold nanorods have interesting optical properties due to surface plasmon resonance effects. A variety of biomedical applications of these particles have been envisaged and feasibilities demonstrated in imaging, sensing and therapy based on the interactions of light with these particles. In order to correctly interpret experimental data, and tailor the nanorods and their environments for optimal...

We investigated the presence and related signal-tonoise ratio (SNR) of rod-shaped bacteria on a produce surface using elastic scattering. The theoretical noise was defined as a scattering signal from a rough produce surface while the signal was defined as a scattering signal from the increasing numbers of rod-shaped bacteria on the produce surface. In this research, we measured the surface topo...