Gold nanoparticles show surprisingly strong interactions with light in the visible range, which can be divided into scattering, absorption, and photoluminescence. When a nanoparticle absorbs light,... Show moreGold nanoparticles show surprisingly strong interactions with light in the visible range, which can be divided into scattering, absorption, and photoluminescence. When a nanoparticle absorbs light, the corresponding energy is converted to heat, which can affect the environment of the (hot) nanoparticle. This thesis uses scattering and photoluminescence to study the behaviour of optically heated single gold nanoparticles: it discusses the behaviour of single plasmonic vapour nanobubbles, which occur around highly heated nanoparticles immersed in a liquid, the detection of chirality in nano-objects through their absorption and the photothermal effect, the behaviour of gold nanoparticles under sub-picosecond pulsed excitation, and the temperature dependence of pulse-excited photoluminescence of such particles. Show less
This thesis describes the implementation and on-sky demonstration of high-resolution integral-field spectroscopy for extreme adaptive optics systems that are used to find and characterize... Show moreThis thesis describes the implementation and on-sky demonstration of high-resolution integral-field spectroscopy for extreme adaptive optics systems that are used to find and characterize exoplanets. For this work the Leiden EXoplanet Instrument (LEXI) was build, which is a visiting instrument for the William Herschel Telescope on La Palma. LEXI was used a pathfinder for testing new technology. The potential of these technqiues have been demonstrated with the observations of PDS 70 by the MUSE instruments, where we have characterized a proto-planet and found a second proto-planet in the same system. The proposed techniques in this thesis can be implemented on future instruments and telescopes for the characterization of exoplanets. Show less
