A comprehensive study was performed on the supramolecular ordering and optical properties of thin nanostructured glycerohydrogel sol-gel plates based on chitosan L- and D-aspartate and their individual components in the X-ray, UV, visible, and IR ranges. Our comparative analysis of chiroptical characteristics, optical collimated transmittance, the average cosine of the scattering angle, microrelief and surface asymmetry, and the level of structuring shows a significant influence of the wavelength range of electromagnetic radiation and the enantiomeric form of aspartic acid on the functional characteristics of the sol-gel materials. At the macrolevel of the supramolecular organization, a complex topography of the surface layer and a dense amorphous–crystalline ordering of polymeric substances were revealed, while at the nanolevel, there were two forms of voluminous scattering domains: nanospheres with diameters of 60–120 nm (L-) and 45–55 nm (D-), anisometric particles of lengths within ~100–160 (L-) and ~85–125 nm (D-), and widths within ~10–20 (L-) and ~20–30 nm (D-). The effect of optical clearing on glass coated with a thin layer of chitosan L-(D-)aspartate in the near-UV region was discovered (observed for the first time for chitosan-based materials). The resulting nanocomposite shape-stable glycerohydrogels seem promising for sensorics and photonics.

The results of the research and design of a novel vacuum photosensor with a planar molybdenum blade structure are presented. The advanced prototype implements the principle of an increasing penetrability of the Schottky barrier for the metal–vacuum interfaces under the action of an external strong electrostatic field. Theoretical and experimental substantiation of the photosensor performance in a wide range of wavelengths (from 430 to 680 nm and from 800 to 1064 nm) beyond the threshold of the classical photoelectric effect is given. The finite element method was applied to calculate distribution of the optical and electrostatic fields inside the photosensor structure. The sensor current-to-light response was studied using the periodic pulsed irradiation with the tunable wavelength. It was shown that the nanoscale localization zones of two types are formed near the surface of the blade tip: the zone of an increased concentration of hot electrons localized inside the molybdenum blade, and the zone with an increased strength of the external electrostatic field localized outside the blade. In general, the mutual positions of these zones may not coincide, whereas the position of the first-type localization zone significantly varies with the changes in the wavelength of the irradiating light. This causes features in the spectrum of the quantum yield of the photosensor such as expressed non-monotonic behavior and occurrence of sharp dips. The design of the photosensor that provides matching of the positions for both types of localization zones was proposed; the manufactured prototypes of the designed device were experimentally studied. In the designed photosensor, the ballistic transport of photoelectrons in the vacuum gap with a strong field provides a possibility for the creation of ultra-fast optoelectronic devices, such as modulators, detectors, and generators.

The results of experimental studies of ohmic conductivity degradation in the ensembles of nanostructured anatase bridges under a long-term effect of direct current are presented. Stochastic sets of partially conducting inter-electrode bridges consisting of close-packed anatase nanoparticles were formed by means of the seeding particles from drying aqueous suspensions on the surfaces of silica substrates with interdigital platinum electrodes. Multiple-run experiments conducted at room temperature have shown that ohmic conductivity degradation in these systems is irreversible. It is presumably due to the accumulated capture of conduction electrons by deep traps in anatase nanoparticles. The scaling analysis of voltage drops across the samples at the final stage of degradation gives a critical exponent for ohmic conductivity as ≈1.597. This value satisfactorily agrees with the reported model data for percolation systems. At an early stage of degradation, the spectral density of conduction current fluctuations observed within the frequency range of 0.01–1 Hz decreases approximately as $1/\omega$, while near the percolation threshold, the decreasing trend changes to $\approx 1/{\omega }^2$. This transition is interpreted in terms of the increasing contribution of blockages and subsequent avalanche-like breakdowns of part of the local conduction channels in the bridges into electron transport near the percolation threshold.

Microscopic structural rearrangements in expanding polylactide foams were probed using multiple dynamic scattering of laser radiation in the foam volume. Formation and subsequent expansion of polylactide foams was provided by a rapid or slow depressurization of the “plasticized polylactide–supercritical carbon dioxide” system. Dynamic speckles induced by a multiple scattering of laser radiation in the expanding foam were analyzed using the stacked speckle history technique, which is based on a joint mapping of spatial–temporal dynamics of evolving speckle patterns. A significant decrease in the depressurization rate in the case of transition from a rapid to slow foaming (from 0.03 MPa/s to 0.006 MPa/s) causes dramatic changes in the texture of the synthesized stacked speckle history maps. These changes are associated with transition from the boiling dynamics of time-varying speckles to their pronounced translational motions and are manifested as significant slopes of individual speckle traces on the recovered stacked speckle history maps. This feature is interpreted in terms of the actual absence of a new cell nucleation effect in the expanding foam upon slow depressurization on the dynamic scattering of laser radiation.

A fundamental limitation of the spectral response of laser-pumped fluorescent nanostructured media was considered in terms of a probabilistic model establishing the relationship between the enhancement factor of a spectral quality and characteristic propagation and amplification scales of pump light and fluorescence in the medium. It was shown that the minimum spectral width of fluorescent response of the pumped medium is limited by competition between the stimulated emission and radiation losses in microscopic fluorescence emitters associated with the speckles randomly modulating the pumping light field. Theoretical results were compared to the experimental data on the spectral properties of the fluorescent response of laser-pumped nanostructured “anatase nanoparticles—dye solutions” systems with various structural and optical properties. Rhodamine 6G and 4-(dicyanomethylene)-2-methyl-6-(p-dimethylaminostyryl)-4H-pyran (DCM) were applied as fluorescent components in the examined systems with various scatter volume fractions, which were pumped by pulse-periodic laser radiation with various intensities at 532 nm. Comparison showed a fair agreement between the theoretical and experimental results.

A method of reference-free speckle spectroscopy based on the statistical analysis of intensity spatial fluctuations of the spectrally-selected multiple-scattered fluorescence radiation is examined in the case of the finite-band spectral selection of fluorescence light emitted by the laser-pumped random medium, and detection conditions far from the ideal case. Intensity fluctuations are recorded during point-to-point scanning of the surface of a random multiple-scattering medium, which is characterized by the dependences of the second- and third-order statistical moments of intensity on the wavelength of detected spectrally selected light. In turn, the statistical moments of intensity fluctuations are determined by the average propagation path of fluorescent radiation in the medium. This makes it possible to analyze the features of the light-medium interactions at a scale of the order of the transport mean free path of radiation propagation in the medium. Depending on the spectral selection conditions, the method is applicable for characterizing micro- or nano-structured fluorescent layers with thicknesses from tens of micrometers to several millimeters. In the examined case, the finite-band spectral selection results in the values of coherence length of the detected fluorescence radiation compared with the ensemble-averaged absolute value of the path-length difference between the stochastically interfering and spectrally selected partial contributions to the fluorescence field. In addition, non-ideal detection conditions (usage of a multimode optical fiber in the light-collecting unit) cause additional strong damping of the detected speckle intensity fluctuations. These factors lead to a remarkable suppression of spatial fluctuations of the fluorescence intensity in the course of spatially- and spectrally-resolved surface scanning of the laser-pumped probed random medium. Nevertheless, with appropriate procedures of the intrinsic noise reduction and data correction, the obtained spectral dependencies of the normalized third-order statistical moment of the band-limited fluorescence intensity clearly indicate the fluorescence propagation features in the probed multiple-scattering random media (such as a strong influence of the scattering strength and multiple self-absorption–re-emission events on the average propagation path of light in the medium).The possibilities of noise reduction and data correction in the case of applying the band-limited reference-free spectroscopic instrumentation with low spectral and spatial resolution are illustrated by the experimental results obtained using the Rhodamine-6G-doped and continuous wave (CW)-laser-pumped layers of the densely packed titania and silica particles.