A SPASER, short for surface plasmon amplification by stimulated emission of radiation, is key to accessing coherent optical fields at the nanoscale. Nevertheless, the realization of a SPASER in the visible range still remains a great challenge because of strong dissipative losses. Here, we demonstrate that room-temperature SPASER emission can be achieved by amplifying longitudinal surface plasmon modes supported in gold nanorods as plasmon nanocavities and utilizing laser dyes to supply optical gain for compensation of plasmon losses. By choosing a particular organic dye and adjusting the doping level, the resonant wavelength of the SPASER emission can be tuned from 562 to 627 nm with a spectral line width narrowed down to 5-11 nm. This work provides a versatile route toward SPASERs at extended wavelength regimes.

Alumina (Al 2 O 3 ) monoliths with well-defined macropores and mesostructured skeletons have been synthesized via a spontaneous route from the aqueous and ethanolic solution of aluminum salts in the presence of propylene oxide and poly(ethylene oxide) (PEO). The addition of propylene oxide to the starting solution controls the gelation, whereas the addition of PEO induces the phase separation. Appropriate choice of the starting composition, by which the phase separation and gelation concur, allows the production of bicontinuous macroporous Al 2 O 3 monoliths in large dimensions (10 × 10 × 10 mm 3 ). The size of macropores is controlled in the range of 400 nm to 1.8 µm, depending on the PEO content in starting solutions. The dried gel is amorphous, whereas heating at temperatures above 800 °C leads to the formation of crystalline phases without spoiling the macroporous morphology; nanocrystalline γ-Al 2 O 3 is precipitated at 800 °C, R-Al 2 O 3 starts to form at 1000 °C, and complete transformation into R-Αl 2 O 3 is achieved at 1100 °C for 5 h. Nitrogen adsorption-desorption measurements revealed that the skeletons of dried gels possess the mesostructure with a median pore size of about 2.6 nm and a surface area as high as 396 m 2 /g. Heat treatment at 300 °C increases the pore size and surface area to 3.5 nm and 512 m 2 /g, respectively. Even after heat treatment at 800 °C, which results in the formation of nanocrystalline γ-Al 2 O 3 , the surface area is 182 m 2 /g, with the pore size being 4.5 nm.

Multiferroic materials have been the subject of intense study, but it remains a great challenge to synthesize those presenting both magnetic and ferroelectric polarizations at room temperature. In this work, we have successfully obtained LiNbO3-type ScFeO3, a metastable phase converted from the orthorhombic perovskite formed under 15 GPa at elevated temperatures. A combined structure analysis by synchrotron X-ray and neutron powder diffraction and high-angle annular dark-field scanning transmission electron microscopy imaging reveals that this compound adopts the polar R3c symmetry with a fully ordered arrangement of trivalent Sc and Fe ions, forming highly distorted ScO6 and FeO6 octahedra. The calculated spontaneous polarization along the hexagonal c-axis is as large as 100 μC/cm(2). The magnetic studies show that LiNbO3-type ScFeO3 is a weak ferromagnet with TN = 545 K due to a canted G-type antiferromagnetic ordering of Fe(3+) spins, representing the first example of LiNbO3-type oxides with magnetic ordering far above room temperature. A comparison of the present compound and rare-earth orthorhombic perovskites RFeO3 (R = La-Lu and Y), all of which possess the corner-shared FeO6 octahedral network, allows us to find a correlation between TN and the Fe-O-Fe bond angle, indicating that the A-site cation-size-dependent octahedral tilting dominates the magnetic transition through the Fe-O-Fe superexchange interaction. This work provides a general and versatile strategy to create materials in which ferroelectricity and ferromagnetism coexist at high temperatures.

This article describes the fabrication of multiscale porous nanocrystalline TiO 2 monoliths through a one-step method that combines a sol-gel process and phase separation in template-free conditions. A large-dimension monolith with well-defined macropores and a mesostructured anatase-type TiO 2 gel skeleton is spontaneously obtained by controlling the solution pH during the hydrolysis and polycondensation reactions of titanium alkoxides. The size of the macropores is adjusted by the starting composition, and a crystallized anatase TiO 2 skeleton is formed without heat treatment. The use of titanium alkoxide strengthens the gel network by the formation of chemical bonding in the condensation reaction, which yields porous monoliths with higher mechanical strength than for the case of porous monoliths derived from colloidal TiO 2 using freeze drying to maintain the porous morphology. The average crystallite size of anatase TiO 2 nanocrystals was found to be about 3.6 nm for the dried gel and about 5.0 nm for the gel calcined at 300 °C. As a result of the growth of the anatase TiO 2 nanoparticles, the mesopores with a median size of 5.0 nm are obtained. The high surface area (∼150 m 2 /g) is maintained even after the heat treatment at 300 °C.