The Effect of Negative Curvature on the Plasmonic Coupling of Concentric Core–Shell Metallic Nanostructures

Negative curvature-dependent localized surface plasmon resonance (LSPR) properties of concentric core–shell metallic nanostructure have been studied using quasistatic approach and plasmon hybridization theory. Whether in single-layered gold nanoshell or double gold nanoshells, the oscillating surface charges always concentrate close to the poles of the metal surface with negative curvature, which results in the anisotropic local electric field distribution and affects both the inter-surface plasmonic coupling and inter-shell plasmonic coupling. Therefore, the change of the radius of the gold surface with negative curvature could modulate the plasmon hybridization and lead to the LSPR shifting. The physical mechanism of the negative curvature-dependent LSPR presents a potential for design and fabrication of nanoscale optical device based on core–shell type metallic nanostructures.     

Tailoring LSPR-Based Absorption and Scattering Efficiencies of Semiconductor-Coated Au nanoshells

Absorption and scattering efficiencies of semiconductor-coated Au nanoshell have been studied by the extended Mie theory for their possible solar cell, optical imaging, and photothermal applications, etc. The effect of Au shell layer thickness, core size, and surrounding medium on the absorption and scattering efficiencies at the localized surface plasmon resonance (LSPR) wavelengths has been reported. It has been found that both the absorption and scattering efficiencies get blue-shifted with an increase in Au shell layer thickness from 2 to 10 nm and with an increase in surrounding refractive index whereas the corresponding LSPR peaks shift towards red. It has also been found that the spectra are red-shifted with an increase in the core radius from 20 to 40 nm while keeping the shell thickness same. The effect of shell thickness on the absorption peak position and absorption linewidth has also been studied. Hence, the optical response of both CdSe- and CdTe-coated Au nanoshells can be tuned and controlled from the visible to the near-infrared (NIR) region of the electromagnetic (EM) spectrum. Finally, the CdSe-coated Au nanoshell exhibits high scattering and absorption efficiencies in comparison to the CdTe-coated nanoshell.     

The Effect of Inserted Gold Nanosphere on the Second Harmonic Generation (SHG) Enhancement Factor of Three-Layered Dielectric-Gold Nanoshell

The tunable second harmonic generation (SHG) enhancement factor of gold-dielectric-gold three-layered nanoshells has been theoretically studied using the theory of quasi-static electrodynamics and plasmon hybridization. Because of the local surface plasmon resonance (LSPR)-induced local field effect, the SHG response corresponding to both fundamental frequency and second harmonic has been greatly enhanced. By changing the geometry parameters and local dielectric environment of the three-layered nanostructure, the intensity and shift of the SHG factor peaks could be fine tuned. As the radius of the inner gold sphere is increased, both the fundamental and the second harmonic SHG peaks from the anti-symmetric coupling between the outer bonding shell plasmon and the inner sphere plasmon decrease, whereas the SHG peaks from the symmetric coupling between the outer shell and the inner sphere get intense. These radius-dependent intensity changes of the SHG peaks also depend on the dielectric constant of the separate layer and outer surrounding. Thus, the number of SHG peak could be tuned from two to four. Furthermore, the wavelength gaps between the SHG peaks corresponding to anti-symmetric and symmetric coupling could be greatly reduced by increasing the thickness of the outer gold shell. Therefore, the nonmonotonous intensity change could be observed because of the switching of the SHG peaks. The corresponding physical origin has been illuminated by analyzing the plasmon hybridization and the polarization fields in the nanostructure.

     

Theoretical Studies of Tunable Localized Surface Plasmon Resonance of Gold-Dielectric Multilayered Nanoshells

Tunable properties of localized surface plasmon resonances (LSPR) of gold-dielectric multilayered nanoshells are studied by quasi-static theory and plasmon hybridization theory. Multilayered nanoshells with the gold core and nanoshell separated by a spacer layer exhibit strong coupling between the core and nanoshell plasmon resonance modes. It is found that the absorption spectra characteristics of LSPR are sensitive to multiple parameters including the surrounding medium refractive index, the dielectric constant of spacer layer, the radius of inner core gold sphere, outer shell layer thickness, and their coupling strength. The results show that LSPR is mainly influenced by the ratio of spacer layer dielectric constant ε ₂ to surrounding medium dielectric constant ε ₄. Absorption spectrum of \(\left |\omega _{-}^{+}\right \rangle \) mode is red-shifted with increasing core radius when ε ₂ > ε ₄. It is surprising to find that LSPR is blue-shifted with increasing core radius when ε ₂ < ε ₄, and no shift when ε ₂ = ε ₄. These interesting contrary shifts of \(\left |\omega _{-}^{+}\right \rangle \) mode with different ratios ε ₂/ε ₄ are well analysed with plasmon hybridization theory and the distributions of induced charges interaction between the inner core and outer shell. In addition, for the sake of clarity, the distributions of electric filed intensity at their plasmon resonance wavelengths are also calculated. This work may provide an alternative approach to analyse property of the core-shell nanoshell particles based on plasmon hybridization theory and the induced charge interaction.     

Discrete Optical Field Manipulation by Ag-Al Bilayer Gratings for Broadband Absorption Enhancement in Thin-Film Solar Cells

Plasmonic gratings have been widely used for light harvesting in thin-film solar cells (TFSCs). However, the detrimental parasitic metal absorption loss limits the actual light absorption in the active layer and reduces the power conversion efficiency. In this paper, it is found that the localized surface plasmon resonance (LSPR) used to increase long-wavelength light absorption has significant field concentration around the bottom corners of metal gratings, but the field distribution for the short-wavelength absorption band localizes around the top corners of gratings. Due to the differences between the spatial field distributions and the related mechanisms of metal loss, discrete optical field manipulation is proposed to suppress the ohmic loss mainly associated with LSPR and the interband transition loss associated with metal materials by using Ag-Al bilayer gratings, where Ag has a small absorption coefficient and Al has a high plasmon frequency. Fifteen to forty percent improvements of photocurrents in TFSCs with Ag-Al bilayer gratings are observed in simulation compared to the ones with single-layer metal gratings. This combined metal nanostructure scheme suppresses the loss issue of metal and extends the application potential of plasmonic light-harvesting techniques.     

Theoretical Study of Sensitivity and Localized Surface Plasmon Resonance of Ag-Dielectric Core-Shell Multi-layered Nanosphere

Localized surface plasmon resonances (LSPRs) of Ag-dielectric-Ag multi-layered nanoshell are studied by quasi-static approximation and plasmon hybridization theory. Absorption properties of multi-layered nanoshell with the silver core and nanoshell separated by a dielectric layer exhibit strong coupling between the core and nanoshell. The result shows absorption spectrum of LSPRS is influenced by the refractive index of surrounding medium, the dielectric constant of middle dielectric layer, the thickness of inner core radius and outer shell layer. LSPR shift of the longest wavelength \(\left |\omega _{-}^{-}\right >\) is red-shifted with increasing the inner core radius. It is interesting to find that longer wavelength \(\left |\omega _{-}^{+}\right >\) mode is mainly effected by the ratio constant of the surrounding medium refractive index ε ₄ to the middle layer dielectric constant ε ₂. \(\left |\omega _{-}^{+}\right >\) mode takes place a blue-shift with increasing inner core radius when ε ₂ > ε ₄, a red-shift when ε ₂ < ε ₄, and no-shifting when ε ₂ = ε ₄. However, the influence of dielectric layer radius to \(\left |\omega _{-}^{+}\right >\) mode shows the different property as that of increasing the inner core radius. The underlying mechanisms are analyzed with the plasmon hybridization theory and the distribution of induced charge interaction between the inner core and outer shell. In addition, the influence of core radius, middle dielectric layer radius and outer shell radius to sensitivity of Ag-dielectric-Ag multi-layered nanoshell are also reported, a higher sensitivity could be gotten by adjusting geometrical parameters. Our theoretical study could give an easy way to analyze properties of the core-shell nanosphere based on plasmon hybridization theory and the induced charge interaction, and usefully broaden the applications in nano-optics.     

Surface-Enhanced Raman Scattering in Tunable Bimetallic Core-Shell

In this paper, optical properties of multilayer spherical core-shell nanoparticles based on quasi-static approach and plasmon hybridization theory are investigated. Calculations show that light absorption spectrum of bimetallic multilayer core-shell has three intense plasmon resonance peaks, which are more suitable for multiplex biosensing based on surface-enhanced Raman scattering (SERS) and localized surface plasmon resonance (LSPR). The plasmon resonance peaks in bimetal nanshells are optimized by tuning the geometrical parameters. In addition, the optimal geometry is discussed to obtain the Raman enhancement factor in bimetallic multilayer nanoshell. SERS enhancement factor is calculated with consideration of dampings due to both the electron scattering and the radiation at the boundary and modified Drude model in dielectric function of bimetallic nanoshell. It is shown that bimetallic nanoshell with the small size exhibits strong SERS enhancement factor (~6.63 × 10⁵) with additional collision dampings and ~2.9 × 10⁹ with modified Drude model which are suitable for biosensing applications. In addition, any variation in blood concentration and oxygen level can be detected by this bimetallic core-shell nanoparticle with sensitivity of Δλ/Δn = 264.91 nm/RIU.     

Plasmonic Perfect Absorbers for Biosensing Applications

We present a theoretical modal investigation of plasmonic perfect absorbers (PPAs) based on the localized surface plasmon resonance (LSPR) for biosensing applications. We design the PPA geometry with a layer of periodic metallic nanoparticles on one side of a dielectric substrate and a single metallic layer on the opposite side. The electromagnetic (EM) fields confine partly in the surrounding medium above the substrate and within the substrate itself. We examine the modes of the PPA geometry for a wavelength range of 600–1500 nm. The fundamental mode of the system provides perfect absorption for a wide angle of incidence 0–70°. The second-order mode shows a strong angular dependence with a sharp resonance and exhibits perfect optical absorption when the critical coupling condition for LSPR is achieved. The coupling condition depends on the size, periodicity, dielectric spacer, and the surrounding material of the system. The strong dependence on the surrounding material makes it a promising candidate for biosensing applications. We introduce a novel approach to investigate the angular dependence of the refractive index change for the PPA system. This novel technique contributes the significant attributes of the LSPR sensors, can be used for any required resonance wavelength depending on geometric design, and it also provides sensitivity analogous to the standard surface plasmon resonance (SPR) biosensors.     

Dual-Band Infrared Perfect Absorber Based on a Ag-Dielectric-Ag Multilayer Films with Nanoring Grooves Arrays

In this paper, we demonstrate a dual-band metamaterial perfect absorber based on a Ag-dielectric-Ag multilayer nanostructure. The structure of top metal film covers nanoring grooves array. A dielectric layer has a function of confining electromagnetic fields. Theoretical analysis shows that two absorption peaks (1059 nm and 1304 nm) with the absorption of 99.2% and 99.9% have been achieved, respectively. The physical origin of perfect absorption peaks are related to the Fabry-Perot resonance effect and localized surface plasmon resonance (LSPR) of the nanoring grooves. Its perfect absorption and resonance wavelength can be well regulated by adjusting the relevant structural parameters. Additionally, the absorber demonstrates good operation angle-polarization-tolerance at wide incident angles (0–60°). We believe that our design has a promising application in plasmon-enhanced photovoltaic, optical absorption switching, and modulator optical communications in the infrared regime.

     

Gamma–Radiation-Assisted Synthesis of Luminescent ZnO/Ag Heterostructure Core–Shell Nanocomposites

There is increasing interest in tuning the physical properties of semiconductor nanostructures using metal nanoparticles. In this work, ZnO nanosphere covered with Ag nanoparticles were synthesized using gamma–radiation-assisted method. The amount of deposited Ag nanoparticles is controlled by changing irradiation dose in the range of 30–100 kGy in order to tune the semiconductor–metal interaction. The successful deposition of Ag on the ZnO nanoparticles is examined by analyzing the morphology, microstructure, optical, and magnetic properties of ZnO/Ag nanoparticles through field emission scanning electron (FESEM), microscopy X-ray diffraction spectra, UV-visible absorption, photoluminescence measurement, and vibrating sample magnetometer. FESEM and elemental mapping results confirmed that Ag nanoparticles have been concentrated at the surface of spherical ZnO particles. Moreover, formation of pure metallic Ag nanoparticles has been confirmed by XRD analysis. UV-visible absorption spectra of obtained ZnO/Ag showed two combined peaks, a weak peak at the shoulder around 360 nm corresponds to ZnO and a sharp absorption at 420 nm refers to spherical Ag nanoparticles. Obtained results from photoluminescence revealed that the near-band-edge emission and defect-related visible emission bands of ZnO could be enhanced dramatically at the same time by deposition of Ag nanoparticles, which was ascribed to localized surface plasmon–exciton coupling and surface plasmon scattering. Controlling the semiconductor and metal coupling effect is interesting because of its application in highly efficient optoelectronic devices and biosensor.     

Design of Infrared Plasma Absorber with High Refractive Index Sensitivity

Three layers of periodic artificial metamaterial sensing structure (including the upper metal particles, intermediate dielectric layer, and the lower reflective layer) with ultra-narrow band absorption were designed. The resonance characteristics and sensing properties were analyzed by the finite difference time domain (FDTD) method. The effect of localized surface plasmon resonance (LSPR) was obviously observed at the resonance wavelength of 911 nm, and it achieves nearly perfect absorption of exceeding 98% with a full width at half maximum (FWHM) of 3.5 nm. In addition, a wavelength sensitivity of 542 nm/RIU with a figure of merit (FOM) of 155 was obtained in the refractive index (RI) range from 1.00 to 1.35, which has a wide range of applications. The results show that the proposed structure has high absorption and RI sensitivity, which is suitable for bioengineering and medical detection.

     

The Effect of Bumpy Structure on Optical Properties of Bimetallic Nanoshells

In this paper, a sensitive bumpy bimetallic nanoshell for detection of thyroid cancer market (Thyroglobulin, Tg) and bovine serum albumin (BSA) proteins is reported. The physical origin of plasmonic properties of bimetal nanoshells is described by plasmon hybridization theory which indicates three intense and clearly separated plasmon modes. The electric field intensity enhancement of the bumpy bimetal nanoshell increases by ~559 %, at the surface of the bump in comparison with a smooth shell. The presence of bumpy structure on the nanoshell surface provides a high enhancement of the resulting Raman signal through an electromagnetic field of the order of 10⁷ which leads to an increase in sensitivity detection of Tg and BSA proteins. In addition, a refractive index (RI) sensitivity of 332.54 nm/RIU is achieved for this bumpy bimetallic nanoshell.     

A Computational Study of the Giant Local Electric Field Enhancement in Al-Au-Ag Trimetallic Three-Layered Nanoshells

The surface plasmon resonance (SPR)-induced local field effect in Al-Au-Ag trimetallic three-layered nanoshells has been studied theoretically. Because of having three kinds of metal, three plasmonic bands have been observed in the absorption spectra and the local electric field factor spectra. The local electric field enhancement and the corresponding resonance wavelength for different plasmon coupling modes and spatial positions of the Al-Au-Ag nanoshells with various geometry dimensions are investigated to find the maximum local electric field enhancement. The calculation results indicate that the giant local electric field enhancement could be stimulated by the plasmon coupling in the middle Au shell or the outer Ag shell and could be optimized by increasing the Ag shell thickness and decreasing the Au shell thickness. What is more, the local electric field enhancement also nonmonotonously depends on the dielectric constant of the environment; the local electric field intensity will be weakened when the surrounding dielectric constant is too small or too large.

     

Buried Effects of Surface Plasmon Resonance Modes for Periodic Metal–Dielectric Nanostructures Consisting of Coupled Spherical Metal Nanoparticles with Cylindrical Pore Filled with a Dielectric

We numerically investigate the buried effects of surface plasmon resonance (SPR) modes for the periodic silver-shell nanopearl dimer (PSSND) array and their solid counterparts with different buried depths in a silica substrate by means of finite element method with three-dimensional calculations. The investigated PSSND array is an important novel geometry for plasmonic metal nanoparticles (MNPs), combining the highly attractive nanoscale optical properties of both metallic nanoshell and cylindrical pore filled with a dielectric. Numerical results for SPR modes corresponding to the effects of different illumination wavelengths, absorption spectra, pore–dielectric, electric field components and total field distribution, charge density distribution, and the model of the induced local field or an applied field of the PSSND array are reported as well. It can be found that the buried MNPs with cylindrical pore filled with a dielectric in a substrate exhibit tunable SPR modes corresponding to the bonding and antibonding modes that are not observed for their solid counterparts.     

Strong Suppression of Surface Plasmon Radiation Damping Rate in Noble Metal Nanoshells

Radiation damping of surface plasmon oscillations in metallic nanoparticles is proportional to their volume. For relatively large particles, this canal dominates the other mechanisms of relaxation and becomes the main limiting factor for spectral sensitivity of nanoparticles. In this communication, we consider metallic nanoshell with the dielectric core and calculate the radiation damping rate of surface plasmon oscillations, depending on the geometry and dielectric constants of the surrounding environment and the core. It is shown that surface plasmon radiation damping in nanoshell is suppressed by several orders of magnitude as compared to the solid particle of the same outer radius. This effect is conditioned by strong redshift of surface plasmon frequencies with the decrease of shell thickness. It is also demonstrated that the radiation damping rate of core–shell particle is highly sensitive with respect to the refractive index of surrounding media.     

Cellular-Like Gold Nanofeet: Synthesis, Functionalization, and Surface Enhanced Fluorescence Detection for Mercury Contaminations

The novel cellular-like gold nanofeet (CGNF) with movable gold core, which are derived from gold/silver core shell nanorods, have been generated by galvanic reaction protocol at room temperature. The optical property based on localized surface plasmon resonance (LSPR) has been evaluated in comparison with solid gold nanofeet, suggesting that obviously high LSPR sensitivity of CGNF contributes to enhancing optical effect for detection of analytes. In contrast with superquenching properties of nanogold for fluorescence detection of pollutants, highly sensitive detection of heavy metal contaminations, e.g., mercury ions, have been implemented via DNA functionalized silica-coated CGNF on the basis of surface enhanced fluorescence (SEF) approach.     

Theoretical Investigation of Plasmonic Properties of Quantum-Sized Silver Nanoparticles

Plasmonic nanoparticles (NPs) like silver (Ag) strongly absorb the incident light and produce enhanced localized electric field at the localized surface plasmon resonance (LSPR) frequency. Enormous theoretical and experimental research has focused on the plasmonic properties of the metallic nanoparticles with sizes greater than 10 nm. However, such studies on smaller sized NPs in the size range of 3 to 10 nm (quantum-sized regime) are sparse. In this size regime, the conduction band of the metal particles discretizes, thus altering plasmon properties of the NPs from classical to the quantum regime. In this study, plasmonic properties of the spherical Ag NPs in size range of 3 to 20 nm were investigated using both quantum and classical modeling to understand the importance of invoking quantum regime to accurately describing their properties in this size regime. Theoretical calculations using standard Mie theory were carried out to monitor the LSPR peak shift and electric field enhancement as a function of the size of the bare plasmonic nanoparticle and the refractive index (RI) of the surrounding medium. Comparisons were made with and without invoking quantum regime. Also, the optical properties of metallic NPs conjugated with a chemical ligand using multi-layered Mie theory were studied, and interesting trends were observed.

     

Simultaneous Excitation of Surface Plasmon Polaritons on Both Interfaces in an Asymmetric Dielectric-Metal Corrugated Structure

The simultaneous excitation of plasmon polaritons on both surfaces of metal film was studied for asymmetric dielectric-metal-dielectric corrugated structures. Due to the small resonant absorption of the incident light on the transmission side of the structure, we investigated the enhancement of the surface plasmon polaritons on the mentioned side by controlling the structure parameters. When the illuminate light changes from normal incidence to non-normal incidence, the resonant absorption peak splits into a doublet. The simultaneous excitation of surface plasmon polaritons on both surfaces of the metal film can be achieved by controlling the incident angle. Since the wave vector matching condition is not satisfied, there is no coupling between the plasmon polaritons modes on the two surfaces of the corrugated metallic film. The excitation and control of the non-coupled surface plasmon polartions simultaneously propagating on the different interfaces of one metallic film have potential applications for designing novel compact and tunable nano-photonic devices at visible frequency.     

Localized Surface Plasmon Resonance and Refractive Index Sensitivity of Metal–Dielectric–Metal Multilayered Nanostructures

The localized surface plasmon resonances of multilayered nanostructures are studied using finite difference time domain simulations and plasmon hybridization method. Concentric metal–dielectric–metal (MDM) structure with metal core and nanoshell separated by a thin dielectric layer exhibits a strong coupling between the core and nanoshell plasmon resonance modes. The coupled resonance mode wavelengths show dependence on the dielectric layer thickness and composition of core and outer layer metal. The aluminum-based MDM structures show lower plasmon wavelength compared with Ag- and Au-based MDM nanostructures. The calculated refractive index sensitivity (RIS) factor is in the order Ag–Air–Ag>Au–Air–Au>Al–Air–Al for monometallic multilayered nanostructures. Bimetallic multilayered nanostructures support strong and tunable plasmon resonance wavelengths as well as high RIS factor of 510 nm/refractive index unit (RIU) and 470 nm/RIU for Al–Air–Au and Ag-Air-Au, respectively. The MDM structures not only exhibit higher index sensitivity but also cover a wide ultraviolet–near-infrared wavelengths, making these structures very promising for index sensing, biomolecule sensing, and surface-enhanced Raman spectroscopy.     

Theoretical Analysis the Optical Properties of Multi-coupled Silver Nanoshell Particles

The surface plasmon resonances of silver nanoshell particles are studied by Green’s function. The nanoshell system of plasmon resonances results from the coupling of the inner and outer shell surface plasmon. The shift of the nanoshell plasmon resonances wavelength is plotted against with different dielectric environments, several different dielectric cores, the ratio of the inner and outer radius, and also its assemblies. The results show that a red- and blue-shifted localized surface plasmon can be tuned over an extended wavelength range by varying dielectric environments, the dielectric constants and the radius of nanoshell core respectively. In addition, the separation distances, the distribution of electrical field intensity, the incident directions and its polarizations are also investigated. The study is useful to broaden the application scopes of Raman spectroscopy and nano-optics.