In this presentation I willdiscuss different experimental methods for the fabrication and characterization of mono- and bi-metallic clusters and nanoparticlesin the gas phase by physical means. When embedded in stable solid matrices, they form cluster-assembled nanostructures with variable properties. In particular I will address the following topics as ex-amples:
– Fabrication of cluster-assembled nanostructures: magnetron sputtering/aggregation versus laser vaporization.
– Size effects in the magnetic anisotropy of embedded cobalt nanoparticles: from sur-face to shape.
– Size effects in the electronic and vibrational relaxation in small silver clusters as evi-denced by ultrafast femtosecond spectroscopy: the departure from the scalable size regime.
– Study of size effects in the electronic structure of size-selected very small silver clus-ters: preliminary results from optical spectroscopy and electron energy loss spectros-copy.
– Structural, optical and magnetic properties of bi-metallic FexAuy and FexAgy nanoparti-cles: optical spectroscopy, magnetometry and synchrotron-based XMCD and EXAFS.
I will conclude by an outlook on possibilities of research on polymer-embedded metal na-noparticles as scheduled in collaboration with IFSC-USP.
Schematic view of the fabrication principle of cluster-assembled nanostructures and high resolution electron micrograph of a small cobalt nanoparticle in a carbon matrix.
