Optical properties of silver clusters and their complexes with biomolecules at surfaces

• Applicant: Professorin Dr. Vlasta Bonacic-Koutecky
• Subject Area: Condensed Matter Physics
• Term: from 2003 to 2012
• Project identifier: Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft (DFG) - Project number 5406373

Photoactivated fluorescence has been recently produced upon visible illumination of silver oxide films. It is assumed that the silver nanoclusters being photochemically generated from the silver oxide are responsible for this finding. Such newly identified properties of nanoparticles open the possibility to photochemically control their fluorescent spectral features. Agn photoproduction from silver oxide might be utilized in optical storage materials to write data. Observed strong size dependent fluorescence in small Ag clusters produced by silver oxide represents a potential for parallel readout and increased storage capacity due to the possibility of color mixing from different cluster sizes. The mechanisms responsible for these phenomena are not known. The goal of this project is to find mechanisms controlling the multicolored fluorescent Ag nanocluster creation from silver oxides based on ab initio theoretical approach.

• DFG Programme: Priority Programmes
• Subproject of: SPP 1153: Clusters at Surfaces: Electron Structure and Magnetism
• Participating Person: Professor Dr. Roland Mitric