Metal nanoshell assembly on a virus bioscaffold

Chilo iridescent virus is demonstrated as a useful core substrate in the fabrication of metallodielectric, plasmonic nanostructures. A gold shell is assembled around the wild-type viral core by attaching small, 2-5-nm gold nanoparticles to the virus surface by means of the chemical functionality found inherently on the surface of the proteinaceous viral capsid. The density of these nucleation sites was maximized by reducing the repulsive forces between the gold particles through electrolyte addition. These gold nanoparticles then act as nucleation sites for the electroless deposition of gold ions from solution around the biotemplate. The optical extinction spectra of the metalloviral complex is in quantitative agreement with Mie scattering theory. Overall, the utilization of a native virus and the inherent chemical functionality of the capsid afford the ability to grow and harvest biotemplates for metallodielectric nanoshells in large quantities, potentially providing cores with a narrower size distribution and smaller diameters (below 80 nm) than for currently used silica.

A hybridization model for the plasmon response of complex nanostructures

We present a simple and intuitive picture, an electromagnetic analog of molecular orbital theory, that describes the plasmon response of complex nanostructures of arbitrary shape. Our model can be understood as the interaction or "hybridization" of elementary plasmons supported by nanostructures of elementary geometries. As an example, the approach is applied to the important case of a four-layer concentric nanoshell, where the hybridization of the plasmons of the inner and outer nanoshells determines the resonant frequencies of the multilayer nanostructure.