| Metallic, nanosized particles exhibit novel electromagnetic properties that have potential uses in a broad range of applications, including efficiency enhancement of and selective spectral response in photovoltaic devices. Fast pulsed-laser induced dewetting of nanoscopic metal films is a promising avenue to economically fabricate ordered nanoparticles and presents a platform to investigate multi-physics, nonlinear dynamical systems. Irradiating metal films <30 nm with a uniformly intense laser beam induces pattern formation that exhibits short range spatial order and possesses a characteristic length scale that are tunable through experimental parameters. The interplay between the thin-film optics, thermal diffusion, and hydrodynamics all dictate the parameters that can be tuned and their effect on the final morphology and characteristic length scales of the dewetting system.;In this dissertation, a new mechanism for self-organization of nanoscopic metal nanoparticles on transparent substrates via uniform beam laser-induced dewetting of ultrathin metal films with thickness spanning from 2 to 20 nm was investigated. Comparison with collaborative experimental data shows that such a model predicts the emergence of a decreasing characteristic length scale in stark contrast from that predicted by classical dewetting analysis derived from polymer literature. In addition, a mixing approach developed collaboratively was discussed which successfully predicted the optical absorption response of ternary nanocomposites from published experimental data. This approach has been extended and used to predict the optical response of quaternary nanocomposites. This approach acts as a novel way of predicting the plasmonic optical response of multi-metal nanocomposite systems consisting of spherical, metal nanoparticles embedded in host dielectrics with potential applications including solar energy harvesting and selective spectral filtering. |
