J. Daniel Gezelter » Image Gallery

Glass formation in bimetallic nanoparticles

Alloyed copper-silver nanoparticles (top) and core-shell nanoparticles (bottom) can form glassy beads when cooled rapidly from a liquid state. The particles are subjected to laser heating by irradiating at the plasmon resonance. The liquid droplets (middle column) are then cooled rapidly via heat exchange with the surrounding solvent. Computer simulations tell us that glassy nanobeads (right column) should be formed easily from laser heating experiments.