Forced Damped Harmonic Oscillator Model of the Dipole Mode of Localized Surface Plasmon Resonance

Plasmonics - A forced damped harmonic oscillator model of the dipole plasmon mode is illustrated by the theoretical derivation and the simulation based on the metal ellipsoids. The analytical...     

Laser-Driven Hybridization of a Surface Plasmon Resonance Collective Mode in a Monolayer of Silver Nanoparticles

Plasmonics - Laser-driven hybridization of a collective surface plasmon mode of a monolayer of silver nanoparticles has been studied as a function of irradiation power density. Two collective...     

Ultra-narrow-band Infrared Absorbers Based on Surface Plasmon Resonance

Due to the advantage of improving the sensing performance, narrow-band metamaterial perfect absorbers (MPAs) have attracted much attention in the sensor field. Here, we propose an ultra-narrow-band infrared absorber (UNBIRA) based on localized surface plasmon resonance. The peak absorption of the UNBIRA exceeds 99% with the full width at half maximum (FWHM) of 1.94 nm and 6.32 nm for transverse electric (TE) wave and transverse magnetic (TM) wave in 1.5–1.8 μm. The corresponding Q-factors for TE wave and TM wave are 817 and 266, respectively. When used as an infrared refractive index sensor, the sensitivity of UNBIRA is as high as 1632.5 nm/RIU for TE wave and 1647.5 nm/RIU for TM wave. Accordingly, the figure of merits (FOMs) of 816.2/RIU for TE wave and 260.7/RIU for TM wave are achieved. This UNBIRA possesses a simple geometry structure and an excellent sensing performance, implying a great potential for application of ultra-narrow infrared sensing or detecting.

     

Localized Surface Plasmon Resonance in Gold Nanocluster Arrays on Opaque Substrates

Plasmonics - We report on the investigation of the localized surface plasmon resonance (LSPR) in periodical Au nanostructures. The arrays of Au nanoclusters and dimers were fabricated on Si and...     

Coupling Behaviors of Surface Plasmon Polariton and Localized Surface Plasmon with an InGaN/GaN Quantum Well

Plasmonics - Surface plasmon (SP) coupling behaviors of an InGaN/GaN quantum well (QW) with surface plasmon polariton (SPP) induced on a smooth Ag-film/GaN interface and localized surface plasmon...     

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.     

Theoretical and Experimental Study of Surface Plasmon Radiation Force on Micrometer-Sized Spheres

We report theoretical and experimental study of surface plasmon (SP) radiation force on micrometer-sized polystyrene latex spheres with different radii. Two theoretical methods are introduced to numerically investigate the SP sphere system: the arbitrary beam theory for electromagnetic field distribution and the generalized Lorenz–Mie scattering theory for radiation force calculation. Transport velocity of the spheres in water is tested experimentally and compared with numerical results. Our work also shows effective coupling from SP field to micrometer-sized spheres, with high consistency between experiment and calculation, which has significant potential in future applications.     

Localized Surface Plasmon Resonance (LSPR) Biosensor for the Protein Detection

In this paper, we investigate the ability of the gold nanorods (GNRs) to detect some proteins and demonstrate their potential to be used as plasmonic nanobiosensors. The GNRs were synthesized by a two-step seed-mediated growth procedure at room temperature. Firstly, a seed solution of gold nanoparticles was synthesized in the presence of cetyltrimethylammonium bromide surfactant and, subsequently, incorporated with appropriate amount of silver nitrate and tetrachloroauric acid solutions to grow GNRs with average length of 50 nm and diameter of 14 nm. We study the interaction of GNRs with proteins whose molecular weight varies from 6.5 up to 75 kDa. We investigate the resulting solutions by means of UV–vis absorption spectroscopy to determine the effect of the proteins characteristics on the shift of the localized surface plasmon resonance (LSPR). We show that for the case when proteins are in large excess compared to the GNRs concentration, whatever the protein is, the LSPR shift is constant and does not depend on the protein molecular weight. Moreover, we have been able to demonstrate that the sensitivity of such LSPR sensor is around 10^–9 M/nm on a concentration range from 10^–10 to 10^–8 M. Some comparison with finite-difference time-domain simulations have also shown that the number of proteins adsorbed at the GNRs surface is around 40.     

DNA Detection Based on Localized Surface Plasmon Resonance Spectroscopy of Ag@Au Biocomposite Nanoparticles

Noble metal nanoparticles (NPs) have attracted much attention due to their unique physical and chemical properties such as tunable surface plasmonics, high-efficiency electrochemical sensing, and enhanced fluorescence. We produced two biosensor chips consisting of Ag@Au bimetallic nanoparticles (BNPs) on a carbon thin film by simple RF-sputtering and RF-plasma-enhanced chemical vapor co-deposition. We deposited Au NPs with average size of 4 nm (Au₁ NPs) or 11 nm (Au₂ NPs) on a sensor chip consisting of Ag NPs with mean size of 15 nm, and we investigated the effect of shell size (Au NPs) on the chemical activities of the resulting Ag@Au₁ BNPs and Ag@Au₂ BNPs. We estimated the average size and morphology of Ag@Au BNPs by scanning electron microscopy (SEM) and atomic force microscopy (AFM) images. X-ray diffraction (XRD) patterns revealed that Ag NPs and Au NPs had face-centered cubic (FCC) structure. We studied aging of the biosensor chips consisting of Ag@Au BNPs by localized surface plasmon resonance (LSPR) spectroscopy for up to 3 months. UV–visible aging of the prepared samples indicated that Ag@Au₁ BNPs, which corresponded to Ag NPs covered with smaller Au NPs, were more chemically active than Ag@Au₂ BNPs. Furthermore, we evaluated changes in the LSPR absorption peaks of Ag@Au₁ BNPs and bare Ag NPs in the presence of a DNA primer decamer at fM concentrations, to find that Ag@Au₁ BNPs were more sensitive biosensor chips within a short response time as compared to bare Ag NPs.

     

Slab Thickness Dependence of Localized Surface Plasmon Resonance Behavior in Gold Nanorings

We present detailed experimental and numerical studies of plasmonic properties of gold nanoring (NR) arrays with different slab thicknesses from 15 to 125 nm. The hybrid plasmon resonances for the bonding and antibonding modes in gold NRs exhibit a high slab thickness dependence behavior in optical properties. For the thinner slab thickness below 50 nm, both hybrid modes show large spectral tunabilities by varying the slab thickness. Furthermore, for such hollow NR structure, the enhancements of electric field intensities at the inner and outer ring surfaces when reducing the slab thickness are investigated. We observe a significant transition of field distributions for the antibonding mode. All these features can be understood by surface charge distributions from our simulations. The results of this study offer a potential strategy to design a composite plasmonic nanostructure with large field enhancement for numerous applications.     

Eigenmode Decomposition of the Near-Field Enhancement in Localized Surface Plasmon Resonances of Metallic Nanoparticles

I present a direct and intuitive eigenmode method that evaluates the near-field enhancement around the surface of metallic nanoparticles of arbitrary shape. The method is based on the boundary integral equation (BIE) in the electrostatic limit. Besides the nanoparticle polarizability and the far-field response, the near-field enhancement around nanoparticles can be also conveniently expressed as an eigenmode sum of resonant terms. Moreover, the spatial configuration of the near-field enhancement depends explicitly on the eigenfunctions of both the BIE integral operator and of its adjoint. It has also established a direct physical meaning of the two types of eigenfunctions. While it is well known that the eigenfunctions of the BIE operator are electric charge modes, it is less known and used that the eigenfunctions of the adjoint represent the electric potential generated by the charge modes. For the enhanced spectroscopies, the present method allows an easy identification of hot spots which are located in the regions with maximum charge densities and/or regions with fast variations of the electric potential generated by the charge modes on the surface. This study also clarifies the similarities and the differences between the far-field and the near-field behavior of plasmonic systems. Finally, the analysis of concrete examples like the nearly touching dimer, the prolate spheroid, and the nanorod illustrate some modalities to improve the near-field enhancement.     

Probing the Localized Surface Plasmon Field of a Gold Nanoparticle-Based Fibre Optic Biosensor

Gold nanoparticles (GNP) have been used in a variety of localized surface plasmon resonance (LSPR)-based optical sensor systems and in a variety of forms, such as colloidal suspensions, immobilized GNP on flat surfaces or optical fibres. A key parameter affecting the sensitivity of these systems is the effective depth of penetration of the surface plasmons. This study aims to determine the plasmon penetration depth in the case of an immobilized GNP-based LSPR optical biosensor. The optical biosensor used for experimentation is a U-bend fibre optic probe of 200-μm core diameter and 1.5-mm bend diameter on which GNP is immobilized. Formation of multilayered nanostructures on the immobilized GNP was used to investigate the field of the localized surface plasmons. Two multilayered nanostructures were explored in this study, viz. a polyelectrolyte multilayer formed by layer-by-layer (LBL) deposition of oppositely charged polyelectrolytes and an immunoglobulin G (IgG) multilayer formed through sequential immobilization of two mutually specific antibodies. Measurement of LSPR absorbance change with deposition of each analyte layer was used to determine the plasmon penetration depth (d _P) of the LSPR biosensor. Probing the plasmon field with an IgG multilayer gave rise to at least twofold higher d _P compared to d _P obtained from the polyelectrolyte multilayer. The effect of GNP size was also studied, and GNP of three diameters, viz. 18, 36 and 45 nm, were used. The 36-nm-diameter GNP exhibited the highest d _P. The outcomes of this study may provide leads for optimization of LSPR-based sensors for various biosensing applications.     

Impact of Propagative Surface Plasmon Polaritons on the Electromagnetic Enhancement by Localized Gap Surface Plasmons Between Metallic Nanoparticles and Substrate

Plasmonics - The nanoparticle-on-mirror system as a surface-enhanced Raman scattering substrate is sufficient for single molecule detection and possesses advantages of high reproducibility and ease...     

Detect the Hybridization of Single-Stranded DNA by Parallel Scan Spectral Surface Plasmon Resonance Imaging

We investigate the ability of a parallel scan spectral surface plasmon resonance imaging system in analyzing hybridization of single-stranded DNA (ssDNA) on microarray. The ssDNA probes are modified by a thiol group and thereby can be immobilized onto the gold film. Hybridization experiments are carried out by using both complementary and noncomplementary sequence to confirm the specificity of interaction. We also demonstrate that the data analysis is very important in reducing the noise and improving the resolution by comparing polynomial fitting method with the combination of polynomial fitting and centroid method. Finally, the results demonstrate that the parallel scan spectral surface plasmon resonance imaging system can be used for high-throughput analysis of the hybridization of the ssDNA.     

Localized Surface Plasmon Resonance-Based Fiber Optic U-Shaped Biosensor for the Detection of Blood Glucose

In the present study, we report the first fiber optic glucose sensor utilizing localized surface plasmon resonance of metal nanoparticles. The fiber was bent in the form of a U-shaped probe for point detection and sensitivity enhancement. The probe was prepared by first attaching gold nanoparticles on the optical fiber core and then immobilizing glucose oxidase over it. The sensor operates in the intensity modulation scheme in which the absorbance is measured with respect to the changes in the glucose concentration. The presence of glucose in the vicinity of the sensing region changes the refractive index of the film due to the chemical reactions with glucose oxidase. The absorbance of the metal nanoparticle changes significantly due to local refractive index change. The fiber optic U-shaped probes of different bending radii were fabricated and it has been found that the probe with bending radius around 0.982?mm possesses the maximum sensitivity. The response of the sensor is fast and requires very small volume of sensing sample (??150???l) which makes it more suitable for commercialization and better than present commercial sensors, which require about 1.5?ml of blood for the detection of glucose.     

Role of Stopband and Localized Surface Plasmon Resonance in Raman Scattering from Metallo-Dielectric Photonic Crystals

Self-assembled photonic crystals grown from different colloidal sizes are coated with gold nanoparticles preferentially on their surface. The effect of localized surface plasmon resonance and the photonic stopband on the Raman scattering from these crystals is analyzed from the angle-dependent scattering measurements. The coupling of photonic and plasmonic modes at the surface of the photonic crystal is verified by measuring the increment in Raman scattering from the crystals containing the gold nanoparticles, and this increment is found to follow the spectral trend of localized surface plasmon resonance.     

Blueshift and Narrowing of Localized Surface Plasmon Resonance of Silver Nanoparticles Exposed to Plasma

We have demonstrated that plasma treatments of silver nanoparticles bring about blueshift and narrowing in their localized surface plasmon resonance. Surface-enhanced Raman scattering analysis revealed that hydrocarbons adsorbed on silver surfaces were removed effectively by plasma exposure. It was found that the decrease in Raman line intensity for hydrocarbons was correlated well with the blueshift. Our findings indicate that one of the most important factors for remarkable differences in plasmon resonance wavelengths and line widths reported for the silver nanoparticles supported on substrates between most of the experimental data and calculations by Mie’s theory is due to the impurity adsorption on silver surfaces.     

Tuning the Fano Resonance Between Localized and Propagating Surface Plasmon Resonances for Refractive Index Sensing Applications

Localized and propagating surface plasmon resonances are known to show very pronounced interactions if they are simultaneously excited in the same nanostructure. Here, we study the Fano interference that occurs between localized surface plasmon resonance (LSPR) and propagating surface plasmon polariton (SPP) modes by means of phase-sensitive spectroscopic ellipsometry. The sample structures consist of periodic gratings of gold nanodisks on top of a continuous gold layer and a thin dielectric spacer, in which the structural dimensions were tuned in such a way that the dipolar LSPR mode and the propagating SPP modes are excited in the same spectral region. We observe pronounced anti-crossing and strongly asymmetric line shapes when both modes move to each other’s vicinity, accompanied of largely increased phase differences between the respective plasmon resonances. Moreover, we show that the anti-crossing can be exploited to increase the refractive index sensitivity of the localized modes dramatically, which result in largely increased values for the figure-of-merit which reaches values between 24 and 58 for the respective plasmon modes.     

InGaN/GaN MQW Photoluminescence Enhancement by Localized Surface Plasmon Resonance on Isolated Ag Nanoparticles

Spectroscopic study of photoluminescence (PL) enhancement due to the coupling of the light emitters in InGaN/GaN multiple quantum wells (MQWs) with the localized surface plasmon (LSP) resonance on silver (Ag) nanoparticles (NPs) is performed using the confocal microscopy and scanning near-field optical microscopy (SNOM) techniques. The paper is focused on revealing the emission enhancement due to coupling with a single metal nanoparticle. The enhancement is confirmed by time-resolved study of differential transmission (DT). The enhancement suppression caused by potential fluctuations due to the variations of indium content and quantum well (QW) width is also studied. A strong photoexcitation intensity dependence of the emission enhancement due to spectral runaway of the MQW emission from the resonance as carrier density increases is observed both in spatially integrated spectra and in the vicinity of a single nanoparticle.     

Influence of Cr Adhesion Layer on Detection of Amyloid-Derived Diffusible Ligands Based on Localized Surface Plasmon Resonance

A Cr adhesion layer inserted between Ag nanoparticles and a glass substrate, for the purpose of improving the adhesion of Ag nanoparticles to glass, was observed to cause an abnormal peak shift of extinction spectra in non-specific reactions. The undesired peak shift misleads molecule detection in non-specific reactions. To solve this issue, a practical technique using n-propyl-trimethoxysilane-based passivation for the detection of amyloid-derived diffusible ligands was investigated as a route to eliminate the abnormal peak shifting observed in the non-specific reactions. To evaluate this passivation technique, localized surface plasmon resonance immunoassay experiments were conducted. Experimental results derived with and without the passivation process were investigated as a basis for comparative analysis. Our experimental results demonstrate that this passivation technique effectively eliminates the observed peak shift originating from the Cr adhesion layer.