Carrier density tuning in CuS nanoparticles and thin films by Zn doping via ion exchange.

Copper sulphide (covellite) nanoplatelets have recently emerged as a plasmonic platform in the near-infrared with ultrafast nonlinear optical properties. Here we demonstrate that the free-carrier density in CuS, which is an order of magnitude lower than in traditional plasmonic metals, can be further tuned by chemical doping. Using ion exchange to replace Cu with an increasing content of Zn in the nanoparticles, the free-hole density can be lowered, resulting in a long-wavelength shift of the localised plasmon resonances from 1250 nm to 1750 nm. The proposed approach provides new opportunities for tuning the plasmonic response of covellite nanocrystals as well as the carrier relaxation time which decreases for lower free-carrier densities.

Clinical and Haematological Abnormalities in Decompensated Chronic Liver Disease Patients.

The liver is the largest organ of the body weighing 1-1.5 kg, which is 1.5-2.5% of the lean body mass. It plays a major role in protein synthesis, nutrient regulation, metabolism, and the combination of bilirubin and drugs, detoxification, bile production, and immune maintenance. Pathogenesis of hematological changes is multifactorial and included portal hypertension induce sequestration, alteration in bone marrow stimulating factors, viral and toxin-induced bone marrow suppression. Anemia of diverse etiology occurs in about 75% of patients of CLD. Causes of anemia in CLD are iron deficiency, hypersplenism, anemia of chronic disease, autoimmune hemolytic anemia, folic acid deficiency, aplastic anemia, and as an effect of an antiviral drug. Alcohol is a widely used drug with side effects that include hematopoiesis suppression. MATERIAL: To assess the clinical and hematological abnormalities in chronic liver disease patients, a cross sectional study was conducted in Shyam Shah medical college and associated Sanjay Gandhi Memorial Hospital during the period from Jan 2020 to June 2021. About 78 patients will be included in the present study. All the cases included in the study were admitted to the hospital ward evaluated for chronic liver disease and hematological abnormalities. OBSERVATION: In our study, we had 71 male and 7 female patients with an average age of 46.61±12.73 years. About 58.97% of the patients were alcoholics. Abdominal distension (74.36%) and Jaundice (56.41%) were the most common presenting complaints. Pallor was present in 54 (69.23%) cases. Splenomegaly was present in 30 (50.84%) chronic liver patients. All 78 patients had anemia and the most common type of anemia was normocytic normochromic anemia (58.97%). CONCLUSION: In this study, we can conclude that, in chronic liver patients, various hematological changes are very common which need to be identified and corrected early to reduce morbidity and mortality. It is important to typify anemia in cirrhosis with respective etiology, characterizing hematological abnormalities may help in better clinical management and help to improve prognosis.

Ultrafast Carrier and Lattice Dynamics in Plasmonic Nanocrystalline Copper Sulfide Films.

Excited carrier dynamics in plasmonic nanostructures determines many important optical properties such as nonlinear optical response and photocatalytic activity. Here it is shown that mesoscopic plasmonic covellite nanocrystals with low free-carrier concentration exhibit a much faster carrier relaxation than in traditional plasmonic materials. A nonequilibrium hot-carrier population thermalizes within first 20 fs after photoexcitation. A decreased thermalization time in nanocrystals compared to a bulk covellite is consistent with the reduced Coulomb screening in ultrathin films. The subsequent relaxation of thermalized, equilibrium electron gas is faster than in traditional plasmonic metals due to the lower carrier concentration and agrees well with that in a bulk covellite showing no evidence of quantum confinement or hot-hole trapping at the surface states. The excitation of coherent optical phonon modes in a covellite is also demonstrated, revealing coherent lattice dynamics in plasmonic materials, which until now was mainly limited to dielectrics, semiconductors, and semimetals. These findings show advantages of this new mesoscopic plasmonic material for active control of optical processes.