Tuning the structural and optical properties of gold/silver nano-alloys prepared by laser ablation in liquids for optical limiting, ultra-sensitive spectroscopy, and optical trapping

The plasmon resonance of metallic Au/Ag alloys in the colloidal state was tuned from 400 nm to 500 nm using a laser irradiated technique, performed directly in the liquid state. Interesting optical nonlinearities, trapping effects and spectroscopic enhancements were detected as function of gold concentration in the nanoalloys. In particular a reduction of the limiting threshold was observed by increasing the gold amount. The SERS activity of the Au/Ag alloys was tested in liquid and in solid state in presence of linear carbon chains as probe molecules. The dependence of the increased Raman signals on the nanoparticle Au/Ag atomic ratio is presented and discussed. Finally preliminary studies and prospects for optical and Raman tweezers experiments are discussed.