Metal nanoparticles for microscopy and spectroscopy

Metal nanoparticles interact strongly with light due to a resonant response of their free electrons. These ‘plasmon’ resonances appear as very strong extinction and scattering for particular wavelengths, and result in high enhancements of the local field compared to the incident electric field. In this chapter we introduce the reader to the optical properties of single plasmon particles as well as finite clusters and periodic lattices, and discuss several applications

Perfect imaging, epsilon-near zero phenomena and waveguiding in the scope of nonlocal effects.

7 pags, 4 figsPlasmons in metals can oscillate on a sub-wavelength length scale and this large-k response constitutes an inherent prerequisite for fascinating effects such as perfect imaging and intriguing wave phenomena associated with the epsilon-near-zero (ENZ) regime. While there is no upper cut-off within the local-response approximation (LRA) of the plasma polarization, nonlocal dynamics suppress response beyond ω/v F, where v F is the Fermi velocity of the electron gas. Nonlocal response has previously been found to pose limitations to field-enhancement phenomena. Accounting for nonlocal hydrodynamic response, we show that perfect imaging is surprisingly only marginally affected by nonlocal properties of a metal slab, even for a deep subwavelength case and an extremely thin film. Similarly, for the ENZ response we find no indications of nonlocal response jeopardizing the basic behaviors anticipated from the LRA. Finally, our study of waveguiding of gap plasmons even shows a positive nonlocal influence on the propagation length. © 2013 Macmillan Publishers Limited. All rights reserved.C. D. acknowledges a FPU fellowship by the Spanish Ministerio de Educación. J. C. gratefully acknowledges financial support from the Danish Council for Independent Research and a Sapere Aude grant (12-134776). The Center for Nanostructured Graphene is sponsored by the Danish National Research Foundation, Project DNRF58

Evolution of sex-specific pace-of-life syndromes: genetic architecture and physiological mechanisms

Sex differences in life history, physiology, and behavior are nearly ubiquitous across taxa, owing to sex-specific selection that arises from different reproductive strategies of the sexes. The pace-of-life syndrome (POLS) hypothesis predicts that most variation in such traits among individuals, populations, and species falls along a slow-fast pace-of-life continuum. As a result of their different reproductive roles and environment, the sexes also commonly differ in pace-of-life, with important consequences for the evolution of POLS. Here, we outline mechanisms for how males and females can evolve differences in POLS traits and in how such traits can covary differently despite constraints resulting from a shared genome. We review the current knowledge of the genetic basis of POLS traits and suggest candidate genes and pathways for future studies. Pleiotropic effects may govern many of the genetic correlations, but little is still known about the mechanisms involved in trade-offs between current and future reproduction and their integration with behavioral variation. We highlight the importance of metabolic and hormonal pathways in mediating sex differences in POLS traits; however, there is still a shortage of studies that test for sex specificity in molecular effects and their evolutionary causes. Considering whether and how sexual dimorphism evolves in POLS traits provides a more holistic framework to understand how behavioral variation is integrated with life histories and physiology, and we call for studies that focus on examining the sex-specific genetic architecture of this integration

Highly uniform and reproducible surface-enhanced Raman scattering from DNA-tailorable nanoparticles with 1-nm interior gap

An ideal surface-enhanced Raman scattering (SERS) nanostructure for sensing and imaging applications should induce a high signal enhancement, generate a reproducible and uniform response, and should be easy to synthesize. Many SERSactive nanostructures have been investigated, but they suffer from poor reproducibility of the SERS-active sites, and the wide distribution of their enhancement factor values results in an unquantifiable SERS signal. Here, we show that DNA on gold nanoparticles facilitates the formation of well-defined gold nanobridged nanogap particles (Au-NNP) that generate a highly stable and reproducible SERS signal. The uniform and hollow gap (similar to 1 nm) between the gold core and gold shell can be precisely loaded with a quantifiable amount of Raman dyes. SERS signals generated by Au-NNPs showed a linear dependence on probe concentration (R(2) > 0.98) and were sensitive down to 10 fM concentrations. Single-particle nano-Raman mapping analysis revealed that >90% of Au-NNPs had enhancement factors greater than 1.0 x 10(8), which is sufficient for single-molecule detection, and the values were narrowly distributed between 1.0 x 10(8) and 5.0 x 10(9)