Generation of line pattern in thin polymer films with embedded gold nanoparticles by irradiation with ultrashort, linearly polarized laser pulses

The laser induced photomodification of metal nanoparticles currently attracts considerable technological interest as an uncomplicated low cost method to control an optimize size, shape and spatial arrangement of metal clusters in nanostructured composite materials. Recently, femtosecond (fs) laser pulse assisted shape modification was demonstrated for metal nanoparticles embedded in silica glass, in this contribution we introduce a new and simple, non-tactile method to generate periodically arranged submicron structures in thin organic films with embedded gold nanoparticles. The periodically arranged line pattern within the film appears when the samples are subjected to irradiation with intense, linearly polarized fs-laser pulses. The nanoparticle-containing films, having a thickness of a bout 100 nm, were deposited by alternating plasma polymerization of hexamethyldisilazane and metal evaporation

Individual Differences in Ideological Attitudes and Prejudice: Evidence From Peer-Report Data

Cohrs JC, Kaempfe-Hargrave N, Riemann R. Individual Differences in Ideological Attitudes and Prejudice: Evidence From Peer-Report Data. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology. 2012;103(2):343-361.Our knowledge on the personality basis of ideological attitudes and prejudice, while based on a substantial body of research, suffers from a potentially serious methodological limitation: an overreliance on the method of self-reports. Across 2 studies (Ns = 193, 424), we examined associations between the Big Five personality dimensions, Right-Wing Authoritarianism (RWA), Social Dominance Orientation (SDO), and generalized prejudice, using both self-report and peer-report data stemming from I (Study 1) or 2 (Study 2) peer rater/s. Correlational and regression analyses as well as structural equation modeling showed that (a) the associations between personality dimensions, ideological attitudes, and prejudice were largely similar to previous research for both data sources; (b) RWA and prejudice showed a similar level of self-peer agreement to personality dimensions; (c) most of the known associations between personality, ideological attitudes, and prejudice were replicated also when measured by independent methods; (d) peer reports had some incremental validity in predicting ideological attitudes and prejudice; and (e) there was evidence that Openness to Experience and Agreeableness predicted prejudice directly and not only indirectly via RWA and SDO, respectively. Implications for the status of RWA, SDO, and prejudice as individual-difference constructs and for their bases in personality dimensions are discussed

Polarization dependence of the permanent deformation of silver nanoparticles in glass by ultrashort laser pulses

Glass containing spherical silver nanoparticles has been irradiated with single, intense, ultrashort laser pulses, with a wavelength corresponding to the surface plasmon resonance of the particles. After irradiation with linear polarization, dichroism is observed. Transmission electron microscopy studies reveal that these spectral changes are caused by deformation of the particles to anisotropic (in the TEM projection approximately ellipsoidal) shapes with an additional halo of small silver particles around the central one. The deformed particles are uniformly oriented with their longer axes perpendicular to the laser polarization. Using laser pulses with circular polarization, again a halo is formed around the particles, but the central particles remain spherical, and no dichroism was observed in the optical spectra

Deterministic Retrieval of Complex Green's Functions Using Hard X Rays

A massively parallel deterministic method is described for reconstructing shift-invariant complex Green's functions. As a first experimental implementation, we use a single phase contrast x-ray image to reconstruct the complex Green's function associated with Bragg reflection from a thick perfect crystal. The reconstruction is in excellent agreement with a classic prediction of dynamical diffraction theory