Plasmonic Response to Liquid-Solid Phase Transition in Individual Gallium Nanoparticles

Plasmonic Response to Liquid-Solid Phase Transition in Individual Gallium Nanoparticles

WoS Article

Gallium is a phase-changing plasmonic material offering ultraviolet-to-near-infrared tunability, facile and scalable preparation, and good stability of nanoparticles. In this work, we explore the impact of the liquid-to-solid phase transition on their plasmonic properties at the single-particle level by analytical transmission electron microscopy. We observed a phase transition from liquid to beta-gallium with a freezing temperature around -135 degrees C and a melting temperature around -20 degrees C. We have shown that the dipole mode of localized surface plasmon resonances can be tuned through their size from the ultraviolet to visible spectral region, while the differences in localized surface plasmon energies between liquid gallium at 25 degrees C and beta-gallium nanoparticles at -177 degrees C are minor. Our results show that the performance of gallium nanoparticles is, in the case of temperature-dependent experiments, unaffected by the liquid-to-solid phase change of gallium and paves the way for suppressing the nonradiative recombination in surface-enhanced Raman spectroscopy at cryogenic temperature.

Gallium is a phase-changing plasmonic material offering ultraviolet-to-near-infrared tunability, facile and scalable preparation, and good stability of nanoparticles. In this work, we explore the impact of the liquid-to-solid phase transition on their plasmonic properties at the single-particle level by analytical transmission electron microscopy. We observed a phase transition from liquid to beta-gallium with a freezing temperature around -135 degrees C and a melting temperature around -20 degrees C. We have shown that the dipole mode of localized surface plasmon resonances can be tuned through their size from the ultraviolet to visible spectral region, while the differences in localized surface plasmon energies between liquid gallium at 25 degrees C and beta-gallium nanoparticles at -177 degrees C are minor. Our results show that the performance of gallium nanoparticles is, in the case of temperature-dependent experiments, unaffected by the liquid-to-solid phase change of gallium and paves the way for suppressing the nonradiative recombination in surface-enhanced Raman spectroscopy at cryogenic temperature.

CRYSTAL-STRUCTURE; RESONANCE; GA(II); SERS

CRYSTAL-STRUCTURE; RESONANCE; GA(II); SERS

HORÁK, M.; FOLTÝN, M.; ČALKOVSKÝ, V.; MIKERÁSEK, V.; BARTOŠÍK, M.; MACH, J.; ŠIKOLA, T.

21.08.2025

Journal of Physical Chemistry Letters

16

35

United States of America

8891

8896

6

https://pubs.acs.org/doi/full/10.1021/acs.jpclett.5c02035