Gold-copper oxide core-shell plasmonic nanoparticles: the effect of pH on shell stability and mechanistic insights into shell formation.

Plasmonic nanoparticles play an important role in applications for chemical sensing, catalysis, medicine, and biosensing. The localized surface plasmon resonance (LSPR) of a nanoparticle is determined by factors such as size, shape, and the local dielectric environment. Here, we report a simple colloidal synthesis method to create core-shell plasmonic nanoparticles with a gold core and a copper oxide (CuO) shell.

Elastic-plastic properties of mesoscale electrodeposited LIGA nickel alloy films: microscopy and mechanics.

The elastic-plastic properties of mesoscale electrodeposited LIGA Ni alloy specimens are investigated as a function of specimen size, strain rate, and material composition. Two material compositions are studied: a high-strength fine-grained Ni-Fe alloy and a high-ductility coarse-grained Ni-Co alloy. The specimens have thicknesses of approximately 200 m and gauge widths ranging from 75 m to 700 m.

Microfabricated fiducial markers for digital image correlation-based micromechanical testing of LIGA Ni alloys.

Photolithographically defined thin film Au dots were used as micro fiducial markers for digital image correlation (DIC), to enable two-dimensional strain measurement of 200 m-thick LIGA (Lithographie, Galvanformung, Abformung) nickel alloys. Due to the sensitivity of electrodeposited films' microstructure and properties on the processing conditions, characterization of LIGA mechanical properties continues to be necessary for microsystems commercialization. DIC offers advantages over laser-based strain measurement techniques but creating suitable speckle patterns on specimens with dimensions under a millimeter is challenging.