Elementary excitations in multiple quantum wire structures

We calculate the plasmon dispersion of electrons in multiple quantum wire structures. Wave function overlapping effects between different wires are neglected. The Coulomb interaction potential is calculated for a model with circular wire area. Analytical results for the excitation spectrum of electron multiple quantum wire structures are obtained within an one-subband model. Landau damping of intrasubband plasmons is discussed. Results for an electron superlattice within a two-subband model are presented and the coupling of intersubband plasmons with intrasubband plasmons is calculated. We compare the theoretical results with recent Raman measurements of intrasubband plasmons in Al _x Ga_1–x As/GaAs wire superlattices. The plasmon dispersion for boson multiple quantum wire structures also is calculated.     

Mechanism of the superenhanced light transmission through 2D subwavelength coaxial hole arrays

By using FDTD numerical simulations, we show that mechanism that is different from surface plasmon polaritons set up by the periodicity at the in-plane metal surfaces may account for the superenhanced light transmission through coaxial hole arrays. We propose that resonant cavity-enhanced light transmission is responsible for it. When an axis is introduced into a hole, slits of definite length are formed. We suppose that a coaxial hole will support the standing waves of Fabry–Pérot-like modes with frequency higher than its cutoff frequency if its gap is small enough in comparison to the wavelength of the incident light and if the metal film is thick enough.     

利用重离子径迹模版法制备出的钯纳米线阵列的表面等离激元共振现象研究(英文)

利用电化学沉积在重离子径迹模版中制备出了不同直径的一维钯纳米线。利用扫描电子显微镜、透射电子显微镜和X射线衍射等多多种手段对制得的钯纳米线进行了形貌和结构表征。利用紫外可见光谱仪分析了钯纳米线的光学响应,发现钯纳米线存在表面等离子体共振现象。随着纳米线直径和长度的增加,其表面等离子体共振峰位发生红移;通过改变光谱测试中激发光的入射角度,其表面等离激元共振模式会随着角度的增大而变多,这可能是在横向振动模式的基础上激发了沿纳米线长度方向振动的纵向模式。与此同时,基于时域有限差分法对钯纳米线的表面等离子体共振特性进行数值模拟,结果与实验符合较好。Palladium nanowires with varied diameters were fabricated using ion-track templates coupled with electrochemical deposition. The morphology and crystallographic structure were characterized with Scanning Electron Microscopy, Transmission Electron Microscopy, X-ray diffraction (XRD). The plasmonic responses of the as-prepared nanowires were investigated by UV-Vis-NIR spectroscopy and the simulations based on the finite-difference time-domain algorithm. The results demonstrate that the surface plasmon resonances of Pd nanowire are sensitive to the wire geometry, but also influenced by the incidence angle of light. The frequency of the transverse dipolar plasmon resonance of nanowire arrays shifts within a wide range from visible to near infrared. With increasing of wires' diameter or length, the resonance peak shifts to the red. With increasing of incident angle, a new peak appears, which is possibly assigned to the excitation of the longitudinal resonance. In addition, numerical simulations disclose that propagating surface plasmon polaritons can be excited on the palladium nanowires and the wavelength of the resonance peak is in good agreement with the experimental results.     

Squeezing visible light waves into a 3-nm-thick and 55-nm-long plasmon cavity

We demonstrate controlled squeezing of visible light waves into nanometer-sized optical cavities. The light is perpendicularly confined in a few-nanometer-thick SiO2 film sandwiched between Au claddings in the form of surface plasmon polaritons and exhibits Fabry-Perot resonances in a longitudinal direction. As the thickness of the dielectric core is reduced, the plasmon wavelength becomes shorter; then a smaller cavity is realized. A dispersion relation down to a surface plasmon wavelength of 51 nm for a red light, which is less than 8% of the free-space wavelength, was experimentally observed. Any obvious breakdowns of the macroscopic electromagnetics based on continuous dielectric media were not disclosed for 3-nm-thick cores.     

Theoretical investigation of plasmonic enhancement of silica-coated gold nanorod on molecular fluorescence

The plasmonic enhancement or quenching effects of a silica-coated gold nanorod (GNR@SiO₂) on the fluorescence of a molecule doped in the silica layer are studied using the multiple multipole method. The enhancement factors (EF) of a GNR with a typical aspect ratio of 3 coated by a 13 nm silica layer upon the fluorescence of a molecule embedded at different locations with various orientations irradiated by a plane wave are analyzed, particularly at the longitudinal surface plasmon resonance (SPR) of GNR. The numerical results show that the EF of a GNR@SiO₂ on the fluorescence is sensitive to the molecular location and orientation. Furthermore, an effective EF (EEF), which is an average of EF over all possible orientations at a specific location, is calculated. According to EEF, the proximities of the end-caps of a GNR are strong enhancing zones. In contrast, the waist area is the weak zone. Moreover, a bigger GNR (a=10 nm) possesses a higher EEF than a smaller one (a=7 nm) for the same aspect ratio and the molecular relative location. Hence, a strong enhancement on the fluorescence is obtained using bigger GNR, if the molecule is near the end-cup and the dipole orientation is along the long axis. On the contrary, the consequence could be quenching, if the molecule is near the waist of a small GNR. The Stokes shift of fluorescence can also affect the EF, except the excitation wavelength.     

Metal nanoparticle gratings: influence of dipolar particle interaction on the plasmon resonance

We probe the influence of grating effects on plasmon excitations in gold nanoparticles arranged in regular two-dimensional patterns. Samples produced by electron-beam lithography are investigated by femtosecond time-resolved and spectroscopic methods. We find a strong dependence of the plasmon lifetime and resonance wavelength on the grating constant.     

Hybrid waveguide-surface plasmon polariton modes in a guided-mode resonance grating

We analyze the coupling between surface plasmon polaritons in a metal grating and the guided modes of a dielectric waveguide. Our model structure is a gold wire grating on a slab waveguide made of silicon nitride on silica wafer. The excitation of guided-mode resonances, surface plasmon polariton modes and hybrid waveguide-plasmon modes are observed in numerical simulations. Our experiments verify the existence of the predicted modes. These hybrid modes add significant degrees of freedom in designing structures for plasmonic applications.     

Influence of the core polarization on the dielectric properties of polyvalent metals

We have measured the dispersion of plasmon excitations in polycrystalline Sn, Pb, Cd and Zn using electron energy-loss spectroscopy (EELS) in transmission. These metals show a remarkable deviation of their plasmon behaviour from standard theoretical expectations which can be attributed to the presence of shallow core levels in the energetic neighborhood of the plasmon energy. The position of the plasmon resonance in the long wavelength limit is in line with predictions from model assumptions taking into account the core level polarization effects. We show that not only the plasmon energy in the optical limit but also the plasmon dispersion is altered by the interaction of the charge carrier plasmon and the core level excitations. Received: 15 June 1998 / Revised and Accepted: 9 July 1998     

Influence of surface plasmon resonance wavelength on SERS activity of naturally grown silver nanoparticle ensemble

We present experimental results to quantify and optimize the surface‐enhanced Raman scattering (SERS) activity of naturally grown silver nanoparticles. Ag nanoparticle ensembles with mean equivalent radii ranging from 10.6 to 20.3 nm were prepared under ultrahigh vacuum conditions by Volmer–Weber growth on quartz plates. A tuning of the localized surface plasmon polariton resonance wavelength from 453 to 548 nm was performed by varying the morphology of the silver nanoparticles. The dependence of the SERS activity on the plasmon resonance wavelength was investigated with a Raman set‐up containing a microsystem light source with an emission line at 488 nm. Shifted excitation Raman difference spectroscopy was applied to remove the fluorescence‐based background from the SERS spectra of pyrene in water using two slightly different emission wavelengths (487.61 and 487.91 nm) of the microsystem light source. We demonstrate that the Raman activities for all SERS substrates are available in the nanomolar range in a water sample. However, the Raman activity crucially depends on the plasmon resonance wavelength of the nanoparticle ensembles. Although for an on‐resonance ensemble the limit of detection for pyrene in water is very low and was estimated to be 2 nmol/L, it increases rapidly to several tens of nanomol for slightly off‐resonance ensembles. Hence, the highest SERS activity was obtained with a nanoparticle ensemble exhibiting a plasmon resonance wavelength at 491 nm, which almost coincides with the excitation wavelengths. Copyright © 2012 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

One-dimensional plasmon in an atomic-scale metal wire

We have measured one-dimensional (1D) plasmons in an atom wire array on the Si(557)-Au surface by inelastic scattering of a highly collimated slow electron beam. The angular dependence of the excitation energy clearly indicates the strong 1D confinement and free propagation of the plasma wave along the wire. The observed plasmon dispersion is explained very well by a quantum-mechanical scheme which takes into account dynamic exchange-correlation effects, interwire interactions, and spin-orbit splitting of the 1D bands. Although the qualitative feature of the plasmon dispersion is reminiscent of that of a high-density free-electron gas, we detected the substantial influence of electron correlation due to strong 1D confinement.     

Large optical-frequency shift of molecular radiation via coherent coupling to an off-resonance plasmon

We demonstrate coherent optical coupling between molecular and plasmon resonances that are well separated in energy. In the presence of metallic nanoparticles, the second harmonic spectrum of organic dyes no longer peaks at the absorption wavelength but is instead blueshifted by 25 nm towards the localized plasmon resonance. The phase of the light generated by the dyes displays a large modulation across the plasmon resonance and no change across the molecular one. The second harmonic signal contributed by the nanoparticles, which is peaked at the plasmon frequency when no molecules are present, similarly displays a shift towards the molecular resonance in their presence. A model based on the interplay of the nonlinear optical near fields is able to account for these observations.     

Influence of amount of CTAB and ascorbic acid concentration on localized surface plasmon resonance property of gold nanorod

Gold nanorods (AuNRs) are prepared through seeded growth approach. Synthesis parameters of the amount of cetyltrimethylammonium bromide (CTAB), and concentration of ascorbic acid (AA) were studied. We were aiming for an aspect ratio of 3 which could be achieved by a nanorod feature in the range of 45 nm length and 15 nm width. The absorption spectra are observed with an UV–visible NIR spectrophotometer and analysed theoretically. It is known that there are two plasmon resonance peaks for gold nanorod corresponding to transverse surface plasmon resonance (TSPR) and longitudinal surface plasmon resonance (LSPR), respectively. It is found that as the concentration of CTAB increases, the yield of NRs increases. As the concentration of AA increased from 0.05 to 0.2 M, LSP shifts to longer wavelength but upon further increasing the concentration, LSP shifts back to shorter wavelength. A linear relationship between LSPR wavelength and surrounding medium dielectric constant is obtained, which is in good agreement with the theoretical results.     

各向异性特异材料波导中表面等离子体的共振性质

使用时域有限差分法,研究了各向异性特异材料(AMM)作为包层的AMM/介质/AMM波导中表面等离子体的共振性质.色散关系表明,当特异材料为负磁导率的always-cutoff型时,AMM/介质/AMM波导支持TE极化的表面等离子体,表面等离子体的波长随着中间介质层的厚度和特异材料磁等离子体频率的减小而变短.在有限长度AMM/介质/AMM波导中,由于两端界面的反射,表面等离子体模在波导中形成Fabry-Perot共振,而实现亚波长的表面等离子体微腔.在共振频率,电场强度在微腔的中部达到最大值,而磁场分别在两端界面处达到最大,电磁能强局域在中间介质层中,这一性质将在可调的具有强局域特性的亚波长微腔及腔量子电动力学中具有潜在的应用.     

Nanosphere Templated Metallic Grating Assisted Enhanced Fluorescence

In this paper, enhanced fluorescence from a silver film coated nanosphere templated grating is presented. Initially, numerical simulation was performed to determine the plasmon resonance wavelength by varying the thickness of the silver film on top of a monolayer of 400 nm nanospheres. The simulation results are verified experimentally and tested for enhancing fluorescence from fluorescein isothiocyanate whose excitation wavelength closely matches with the plasmon resonance wavelength of the substrate with 100 nm silver film over nanosphere. The 12 times enhancement in the intensity is attributed to the local field enhancement in addition to the excitation of surface plasmon polaritons along the surface.     

Local plasmon sensor with gold colloid monolayers deposited upon glass substrates

A new optical sensor that uses local plasmon resonance is proposed. A peak that is due to the local plasmon resonance appears in the absorption spectrum of a gold colloid suspension in the visible region, and its height and wavelength depend on the refractive index of the suspension. These properties are used for optical sensors. We used gold colloid monolayers in which colloidal gold particles a few tens of nanometers in diameter were immobilized upon a glass slide by a functional organic coupling agent. We measured the absorption spectra of the the gold colloid monolayers, which were immersed in liquid samples or coated with thin films. We observed increases of both the resonance wavelength and the absorbance as the refractive indices of the sample liquids or the thickness of the coated films increased. The proportional constants of the resonance wavelength to the film thickness were 3.6 and 5.7 for a 13.9- and a 20.2-nm gold colloid monolayer, respectively.     

Surface plasmon radiation forces

We report the first experimental observation of momentum transfer from a surface plasmon to a single dielectric sphere. Using a photonic force microscope, we measure the plasmon radiation forces on different polystyrene beads as a function of their distance from the metal surface. We show that the force magnitude at resonance is strongly enhanced compared to a nonresonant illumination. Measurements performed as a function of the probe particle size indicate that optical manipulation by plasmon fields has a strong potential for optical sorting.     

非傍轴矢量高斯光束的光强表示

 基于瑞利-索末菲衍射积分，未使用任何近似，对非傍轴矢量光束的两种光强表示式，即传统光强公式和时间平均坡印廷矢量的z分量进行了研究。对非傍轴矢量高斯光束详细数值计算结果的比较表明，两种表示式之间的差异，即两者的相对误差与束腰宽度及传输距离和波长的比值有关。对非傍轴矢量高斯光束，若传输距离与波长的比值为10，束腰宽度与波长的比值大于等于0.8，则最大相对误差不到1.5%。因此，传统光强公式是可用的。     

Nonlocal screening of plasmons in graphene by semiconducting and metallic substrates: first-principles calculations

We investigate the role of substrates on the collective excitations of graphene by using a first-principles implementation of the density response function within the random-phase approximation. Specifically, we consider graphene adsorbed on SiC(0001) and Al(111) as representative examples of a semiconducting and metallic substrate. On SiC(0001), the long wavelength π plasmons are significantly damped although their energies remain almost unaltered. On Al(111), the long wavelength π plasmons are completely quenched due to the coupling to the metal surface plasmon. The strong damping of the plasmon excitations occurs despite the fact that the single-particle band structure of graphene is completely unaffected by the substrates illustrating the nonlocal nature of the effect.     

Fluorescent silver nanoparticles via exploding wire technique

Aqueous solution containing spherical silver nanoparticles of 20–80 nm size have been generated using a newly developed novel electro-exploding wire (EEW) technique where thin silver wires have been exploded in double distilled water. Structural properties of the resulted nanoparticles have been studied by means of X-ray diffractometer (XRD) and transmission electron microscopy (TEM). The absorption spectrum of the aqueous solution of silver nanoparticles showed the appearance of a broad surface plasmon resonance (SPR) peak centered at a wavelength of 390 nm. The theoretically generated SPR peak seems to be in good agreement with the experimental one. Strong green fluorescence emission was observed from the water-suspended silver nanoparticles excited with light of wavelengths 340, 360 and 390 nm. The fluorescence of silver nanoparticles could be due to the excitation of the surface plasmon coherent electronic motion with the small size effect and the surface effect considerations     

Retardation-effect-induced plasmon modes in a silica-core gold-shell nanocylinder pair

The retardation-effect-induced plasmon modes in a silica-core gold-shell nanocylinder pair is investigated by the two-dimension finite difference time domain method. We show that for light polarized perpendicular to the axis connecting the pair, the spectrum depends sensitively on the size of nanocylinder pair. As the size increases, several retardation-induced non-dipolar plasmon modes including multipolar modes appear in the spectrum and the resonance wavelength and strength of its plasmon modes can be tuned by changing separation width between the nanocylinder pair. Both extinction spectra as a function of size of the core-shell nanocylinder and near-field intensity associated with the coupling resonance modes are reported.