Fei Le

Metallic nanoparticle arrays: a common substrate for both surface-enhanced Raman scattering and surface-enhanced infrared absorption.

Nanoshell arrays have recently been found to possess ideal properties as a substrate for combining surface enhanced raman scattering (SERS) and surface enhanced infrared absorption (SEIRA) spectroscopies, with large field enhancements at the same spatial locations on the structure. For small interparticle distances, the multipolar plasmon resonances of individual nanoshells hybridize and form red-shifted bands, a relatively narrow band in the near-infrared (NIR) originating from quadrupolar nanoshell resonances enhancing SERS, and a very broadband in the mid-infrared (MIR) arising from dipolar resonances enhancing SEIRA. The large field enhancements in the MIR and at longer wavelengths are due to the lightning-rod effect and are well described with an electrostatic model.

Plasmonic substrates for surface-enhanced spectroscopies

Using the Plasmon Hybridization (PH) method and the Finite-Difference Time-Domain (FDTD) method, we investigate the plasmonic properties of finite metallic nanopartices interacting with extended metallic substrates such as thin films and wires. The results from the two computational methods are found to agree very well. We show that the plasmons of a metallic nanoparticle couple to the delocalized plasmons of extended substrates in the same manner as an electronic impurity level couples to an continuum of electronic states. The interaction can result in both localized plasmons and virtual states in the plasmonic continuum. The virtual states are composed of delocalized plasmons from the extended substrate and depend sensitively on the geometry of the system, the polarization of incident electromagnetic excitations as well as the background dielectric properties of the structures. We demonstrate that the virtual state can provide large electric field enhancements over a broad and tunable spectral regime. Our investigations show that plasmonic structures supporting virtual states are highly suitable as substrates for surface enhanced spectroscopic applications and may be useful in plasmonic waveguiding applications.

Plasmon hybridization in complex metallic nanostructures

The plasmon hybridization method is a powerful approach for calculating the optical properties of composite nanostructures. The plasmons can be viewed as resulting from hybridization of the elementary plasmon modes associated with the different surfaces of the nanostructure. We present applications to metallic core/shell particles, nanoshells with a nonconcentric core and plasmons in metallic films.