Final Activity Report Summary - EREMON (Electronic response of molybdenum-based nanowires) MoSIx are semimetallic nanowires (NWs) that have been tested already among others as molecular scale connectors, bio- and chemosensors, electrodes for Li ion batteries, and field emission tips. Due to their particularly low interaction with each other and their environment (hence their application also in lubricants), they are currently the 'most one-dimensional' material we know. Optical and electronic applications of any material are based on the non-equilibrium behaviour of electrons, which was the main focus of this project. Femtosecond spectroscopy yielded a complex relaxation behaviour consisting of intraband relaxation during few 100 fs, followed by a cascade of interband transitions. The findings reveals potential for non-linear optical applications such as optical limiting and saturable absorbers. In electronics, the fast initial steps of the relaxation cascade enable high-frequency applications, while the final interband transition is slower and can buffer information for a few ns. Additionally, in the course of the project we found out that optical spectroscopy can also be very instrumental for the preparation and characterisation of NW dispersions.
