Chapters authored
Plasmonic Field Distribution of Homo- and Hetero Dimeric Ag and Au Nanoparticles
Silver (Ag) and gold (Au) nanoparticles are known to have very strong plasmonic fields among the other plasmonic metallic nanoparticles. When two Ag or Au nanoparticles are brought close together, hot spots (strong electromagnetic field) are formed between the particles, which can be exploited in imaging and sensing applications. In this chapter, we used the discrete dipole approximation (DDA) to investigate the interdimer separation dependence of the localized surface plasmon resonance (LSPR) of homo- and heterodimers of Ag and Au nanocubes (NCs) when the exciting incident light is polarized parallel to the dimer axis. It was found that as the interdimer separation changes, the plasmonic field distribution around the nanocubes’ surface varied. The results from the homodimers showed that the primary plasmon band red-shifted in accordance with the universal scaling law and the hot spots geometry changed abruptly at small separations. The results simulated at very short distances showed that the hot spots formed in between the adjacent facets and away from the corners of these facets. However, at larger separations, it moved toward the adjacent corners. For heterodimers, unusual behavior was observed. It showed that the E-field resulting from excitation of the Ag-dominated plasmon resonance was significantly weaker than expected, and the red shift of the gold-dominated plasmon resonance did not follow the universal scaling law. It is likely that the silver plasmon mixes with the gold interband transition to form a hybrid resonance that produces weaker overall field intensity.
Part of the book: Nanoplasmonics