Exceptional Concentrations of Gold Nanoparticles in 1,7 Ga Fluid Inclusions From the Kola Superdeep Borehole, Northwest Russia.

In the drill core of the Kola super-deep borehole (SG-3, 12,262 m depth) gold-bearing rocks of Archaean age have been located at depths of 9,500 to 11,000 m. In veins, between 9,052 and 10,744 m, within this gold zone, quartz contains fluid inclusions with gold nanoparticles. There are 4 types of fluid inclusions (1) gas inclusions of dense CO2, (2) liquid-vapor two-phase aqueous inclusions, (3) three-phase inclusions with NaCl daughter crystals, and (4) CO2-aqueous inclusions. In all inclusion types, there are extremely high concentrations of gold. The highest gold concentrations were found in the type 3 and 4 fluid inclusions with an average concentration of c. 750 ppm and may be as high as 6,000 ppm. The presence of gold as nanoparticles in the solutions of these fluid inclusions was determined by optical and spectroscopic methods. We suggest that these fluids could be a precursor of "orogenic gold fluids" which, at the gold concentrations determined, would reduce the requirements for large volumes of metamorphic fluids to form orogenic ore deposits. Further, as nanoparticles, gold could be transported in larger amounts than in true solution.

Purcell effect in active diamond nanoantennas.

We suggest a novel class of active nanoantennas based on diamond nanoparticles with embedded nitrogen-vacancy centres coupled to Mie resonances of nanoparticles. We theoretically study the optical properties of such nanoantennas including the field enhancement and Purcell effect, and experimentally demonstrate the enhancement of the fluorescence rate of the emitters due to particle resonances, as compared to a nonresonant regime. Our results pave the way towards active dielectric nanophotonics for quantum light sources, bioimaging, and quantum information processing.

Nanoscale Generation of White Light for Ultrabroadband Nanospectroscopy.

Achieving efficient localization of white light at the nanoscale is a major challenge due to the diffraction limit, and nanoscale emitters generating light with a broadband spectrum require complicated engineering. Here we suggest a simple, yet highly efficient, nanoscale white-light source based on a hybrid Si/Au nanoparticle with ultrabroadband (1.3-3.4 eV) spectral characteristics. We incorporate this novel source into a scanning-probe microscope and observe broadband spectrum of photoluminescence that allows fast mapping of local optical response of advanced nanophotonic structures with submicron resolution, thus realizing ultrabroadband near-field nanospectroscopy.

Metal-organic frameworks as competitive materials for non-linear optics.

The last five years have witnessed a huge breakthrough in the creation and the study of the properties of a new class of compounds - metamaterials. The next stage of this technological revolution will be the development of active, controllable, and non-linear metamaterials, surpassing natural media as platforms for optical data processing and quantum information applications. However, scientists are constantly faced with the need to find new methods that can ensure the formation of quantum and non-linear metamaterials with higher resolution. One such method of producing metamaterials in the future, which will provide scalability and availability, is chemical synthesis. Meanwhile, the chemical synthesis of organized 3D structures with a period of a few nanometers and a size of up to a few millimeters is not an easy task and is yet to be resolved. The most promising avenue seems to be the use of highly porous structures based on metal-organic frameworks that have demonstrated their unique properties in the field of non-linear optics (NLO) over the past three years. Thus, the aim of this review is to examine current progress and the possibilities of using metal-organic frameworks in the field of non-linear optics as chemically obtained metamaterials of the future. The review begins by presenting the theoretical principles of physical phenomena represented by mathematical descriptions for clarity. Major attention is paid to the second harmonic generation (SHG) effect. In this section we compare inorganic single crystals, which are most commonly used to study the effect in question, to organic materials, which also possess the required properties. Based on these data, we present a rationale for the possibility of studying the non-linear optical properties of metal-organic structures as well as describing the use of synthetic approaches and the difficulties associated with them. The second part of the review explicitly acquaints the reader with a new class of materials which successfully combines the positive properties of organic and inorganic materials. Using recently synthesized metal-organic frameworks and coordination polymers in the field of non-linear optics as an example, we consider synthetic approaches used for obtaining materials with desired properties and the factors to be considered in this case. Finally, probable trends towards improving the quality of the synthesized materials with regards to their further use in the field of non-linear optical effects are described.

Self-adjusted all-dielectric metasurfaces for deep ultraviolet femtosecond pulse generation.

The advantage of metasurfaces and nanostructures with a high nonlinear response is that they do not require phase matching, and the generated pulses are short in the time domain without additional pulse compression. However, the fabrication of large-scale planar structures by lithography-based methods is expensive, time consuming, and requires complicated preliminary simulations to obtain the most optimized geometry. Here, we propose a novel strategy for the self-assembled fabrication of large-scale resonant metasurfaces, where incident femtosecond laser pulses adjust the initial silicon films via specific surface deformation to be as resonant as possible for a given wavelength. The self-adjusting approach eliminates the necessity of multistep lithography and designing, because interference between the incident and the scattered parts of each laser pulse "imprints" resonant field distribution within the film. The self-adjusted metasurfaces demonstrate a high damage threshold (≈1012 W cm-2) and efficient frequency conversion from near-IR to deep UV. The conversion efficiency is up to 30-fold higher compared with nonresonant smooth Si films. The resulting metasurfaces allow for the generation of UV femtosecond laser pulses at a wavelength of 270 nm with a high peak and average power (≈105 W and ≈1.5 µW, respectively). The results pave the way to the creation of ultrathin nonlinear metadevices working at high laser intensities for efficient deep UV generation at the nanoscale.

Unique anisotropic optical properties of a highly stable metal-organic framework based on trinuclear iron(iii) secondary building units linked by tetracarboxylic linkers with an anthracene core.

A highly stable metal-organic framework, [{Fe3(ACTBA)2}X·6DEF]n (1; X = monoanion), based on trinuclear iron(iii) secondary building units connected by tetracarboxylates with an anthracene core, 2,6,9,10-tetrakis(p-carboxylatophenyl)anthracene (ACTBA), is reported. Depending on the direction of light polarisation, crystals of 1 exhibit anisotropic optical properties with birefringence Δn = 0.3 (λ = 590 nm).

Laser fabrication of crystalline silicon nanoresonators from an amorphous film for low-loss all-dielectric nanophotonics.

The concept of high refractive index subwavelength dielectric nanoresonators, supporting electric and magnetic optical resonance, is a promising platform for waveguiding, sensing, and nonlinear nanophotonic devices. However, high concentration of defects in the nanoresonators diminishes their resonant properties, which are crucially dependent on their internal losses. Therefore, it seems to be inevitable to use initially crystalline materials for fabrication of the nanoresonators. Here, we show that the fabrication of crystalline (low-loss) resonant silicon nanoparticles by femtosecond laser ablation of amorphous (high-loss) silicon thin films is possible. We apply two conceptually different approaches: recently proposed laser-induced transfer and a novel laser writing technique for large-scale fabrication of the crystalline nanoparticles. The crystallinity of the fabricated nanoparticles is proven by Raman spectroscopy and electron transmission microscopy, whereas optical resonant properties of the nanoparticles are studied using dark-field optical spectroscopy and full-wave electromagnetic simulations.