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Lookup NU author(s): Professor Thomas Penfold
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License (CC BY 4.0).
Picosecond X-ray absorption spectroscopy (XAS) is used to investigate the electronic and structural dynamics initiated by plasmon excitation of 1.8 nm diameter Au nanoparticles (NPs) functionalised with 1-hexanethiol. We show that 100 ps after photoexcitation the transient XAS spectrum is consistent with an 8% expansion of the Au–Au bond length and a large increase in disorder associated with melting of the NPs. Recovery of the ground state occurs with a time constant of ∼1.8 ns, arising from thermalisation with the environment. Simulations reveal that the transient spectrum exhibits no signature of charge separation at 100 ps and allows us to estimate an upper limit for the quantum yield (QY) of this process to be <0.1.
Author(s): Zamponi F, Penfold TJ, Nachtegaal M, Lubcke A, Rittmann J, Milne CJ, Chergui M, vanBokhoven JA
Publication type: Article
Publication status: Published
Journal: Physical Chemistry Chemical Physics
Year: 2014
Volume: 16
Issue: 42
Pages: 23157-23163
Print publication date: 01/10/2014
Online publication date: 18/09/2014
Acceptance date: 16/09/2014
Date deposited: 28/09/2015
ISSN (print): 1463-9076
ISSN (electronic): 1463-9084
Publisher: Royal Society of Chemistry
URL: http://pubs.rsc.org/en/Content/ArticleLanding/2014/CP/C4CP03301A#!divAbstract
DOI: 10.1039/C4CP03301A
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