Giant Plasmene Nanosheets, Nanoribbons, and Origami could lead to new optical effects like invisibility cloaks

ACS Nano – Giant Plasmene Nanosheets, Nanoribbons, and Origami

Monash University researchers have developed Plasmene— in analogy to graphene—as free-standing, one-particle-thick, superlattice sheets of nanoparticles (“meta-atoms”) from the “plasmonic periodic table”, which has implications in many important research disciplines. Here, they report on a general bottom-up self-assembly approach to fabricate giant plasmene nanosheets (i.e., plasmene with nanoscale thickness but with macroscopic lateral dimensions) as thin as ∼40 nm and as wide as ∼3 mm, corresponding to an aspect ratio of ∼75 000. In conjunction with top–down lithography, such robust giant nanosheets could be milled into one-dimensional nanoribbons and folded into three-dimensional origami. Both experimental and theoretical studies reveal that our giant plasmene nanosheets are analogues of graphene from the plasmonic nanoparticle family, simultaneously possessing unique structural features and plasmon propagation functionalities.

[New Scientist] Sheets of gold one nano-particle thick have been folded into tiny origami. Dubbed plasmene, the material has some of the weirdest optical properties around. It could someday enable things like invisibility cloaks and super-efficient solar cells.

Plasmonic materials, such as gold and silver, capture light and transmit it along their surfaces as waves of electrons called plasmons. They can squeeze light into spaces smaller than the laws of physics normally allow

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