arXiv subjects

Nadezda Varkentina

Publications and source records attributed to Nadezda Varkentina.

4 recordsLinked to original sources

arXiv2023

Excitation's lifetime extracted from electron-photon (EELS-CL) nanosecond-scale temporal coincidences

Electron-photon temporal correlations in electron energy loss (EELS) and cathodoluminescence (CL) spectroscopies have recently been used to measure the relative quantum efficiency of materials. This combined spectroscopy, named Cathodoluminescence excitation spectroscopy (CLE), allows the identification of excitation and decay channels which are hidden in average measurements. Here, we demonstrate that CLE can also be used to measure excitation's decay time. In addition, the decay time as a function of the excitation energy is accessed, as the energy for each electron-photon pair is probed. We used two well-known insulating materials to characterize this technique, nanodiamonds with \textit{NV$^0$} defect emission and h-BN with a \textit{4.1 eV} defect emission. Both also exhibit marked transition radiations, whose extremely short decay times can be used to characterize the instrumental response function. It is found to be typically 2 ns, in agreement with the expected limit of the EELS detector temporal resolution. The measured lifetimes of \textit{NV$^0$} centers in diamond nanoparticles (20 to 40 ns) and \textit{4.1 eV} defect in h-BN flakes ($<$ 2 ns) matches those reported for those materials previously.

cond-mat.mtrl-sci↗

arXiv2022

Cathodoluminescence excitation spectroscopy: nanoscale imaging of excitation pathways

Following the lifespan of optical excitations from their creation to decay into photons is crucial in understanding materials optical properties. Macroscopically, techniques such as the photoluminescence excitation spectroscopy provide unique information on the photophysics of materials with applications as diverse as quantum optics or photovoltaics. Materials excitation and emission pathways are affected by nanometer scale variations directly impacting devices performances. However, they cannot be directly accessed, despite techniques, such as optical spectroscopies with free electrons, having the relevant spatial, spectral or time resolution. Here, we explore optical excitation creation and decay in two representative optical devices: plasmonic nanoparticles and luminescent 2D layers. The analysis of the energy lost by an exciting electron that is coincident in time with a visible-UV photon unveils the decay pathways from excitation towards light emission. This is demonstrated for phase-locked interactions, such as in localized surface plasmons, and non-phase-locked ones, such as the light emission by individual point defects. This newly developed cathodoluminescence excitation spectroscopy images energy transfer pathways at the nanometer scale. It widens the toolset available to explore nanoscale materials.

cond-mat.mes-hall↗

arXiv2017

Small Gold Nanorods with Tunable Absorption for Photothermal Microscopy in Cells

Over the last decade, single-molecule optical microscopy has become the gold-standard approach to decipher complex molecular processes in cellular environments. [1-3] Single-molecule fluorescence microscopy has several advantages such as ease of application, high sensitivity, low invasiveness and versatility due the large number of available fluorescent probes. It bears however some drawbacks related to the poor photostability of organic dye molecules [4] and auto-fluorescent proteins [5-7] and and to the relatively large size of semiconductor nanoparticles in the context of live cell applications. [4,8,9] The overall size of the functional biomarkers is a general issue for any imaging approach because of steric hindrance effects in confined cell regions. Small red-shifted nano-emitters that are highly photostable are not currently available, while they would combine the best physical and optical penetration properties in biological tissues. Although single-molecule absorption microscopy was early used to detect single-molecules [10] at cryogenic temperatures, it is only with the advent of photothermal microscopy [11,12] that practical applications of absorption microscopy were developed in single-molecule research. Photothermal imaging (PhI)

physics.bio-ph↗

arXiv2014

Sets of unique continuation for heat equation

We study nodal lines of solutions to the heat equations. We are interested in the global geometry of nodal sets, in the whole domain of definition of the solution. The local structure of nodal sets is a well understander subject, while the global geometry of nodal lines is much less clear. We give a detailed analysis of a simple component of a nodal set of a solution of the heat equation.

math.AP↗