Controlled Overgrowth of Five-Fold Concave Nanoparticles into Plasmonic Nanostars and Their Single-Particle Scattering Properties

Growth of anisotropic nanostructures enables the manipulation of optical properties across the electromagnetic spectrum by fine morphological tuning of the nanoparticles. Among them, stellated metallic nanostructures present enhanced properties owing to their complex shape, and hence, the control over the final morphology becomes of great importance. Herein, a seed-mediated method for the high-yield production of gold_rich-copper concave branched nanostructures and their structural and optical characterization is reported. The synthesis protocol enabled excellent control and tunability of the final morphology, from concave pentagonal nanoparticles to five-fold branched nanoparticles, named "nanostars". The anisotropic shape was achieved via kinetic control over the synthesis conditions by selective passivation of facets using a capping agent and assisted by the presence of copper chloride ions, both having a crucial impact over the final structure. Optical extinction measurements of nanostars in solution indicated a broad spectral response, hiding the properties of the individual nanostars. Hence, single-particle scattering measurements of individual concave pentagonal nanoparticles and concave nanostars were performed to determine the origin of the multiple plasmon bands by correlation with their morphological features, following their growth evolution. Finite-difference time-domain calculations delivered insights into the geometry-dependent plasmonic properties of concave nanostars and their packed aggregates. Our results uncover the intrinsic scattering properties of individual nanostars and the origin of the broad spectral response, which is mostly due to z-direction packed aggregates.

Near- and Far-Field Optical Response of Eccentric Nanoshells

We study the optical response of eccentric nanoshells (i.e., spherical nanoparticles with an eccentric spherical inclusion) in the near and the far field through finite-difference time-domain simulations. Plasmon hybridization theory is used to explain the obtained results. The eccentricity generates a far-field optical spectrum with various plasmon peaks. The number, position, and width of the peaks depend on the core offset. Near-field enhancements in the surroundings of these structures are significantly larger than those obtained for equivalent concentric nanoshells and, more importantly, they are almost independent of the illumination conditions. This opens up the door for using eccentric nanoshells in applications requiring intense near-field enhancements.

Optimizing the electric field around solid and core-shell alloy nanostructures for near-field applications

The near electric field enhancement around plasmonic nanoparticles (NPs) is very important for applications like surface enhanced spectroscopies, plasmonic dye-sensitized solar cells and plasmon-enhanced OLEDs, where the interactions occur close to the surface of the NPs. In this work we have calculated the near-field enhancement around solid and core-shell alloy NPs as a function of their geometrical parameters and composition. We have found that the field enhancement is lower in the AuxAg1-x alloys with respect to pure Ag NPs, but it is still high enough for most near-field applications. The higher order modes have a stronger influence over the near-field due to a sharper spatial decay of the near electric field with the increase of the order of multipolar modes. For the same reason, in AuxAg1-x@SiO2 core-shell structures, the quadrupolar mode is dominant around the core, whereas the dipolar mode is predominant around the shell. The LSPR modes can have different behaviours in the near- and the far-field, particularly for larger particles with high Ag contents, which indicates that caution must be exercised for designing plasmonic nanostructures for near-field applications, as the variations of the LSPR in the near-field cannot be inferred from those observed in the far-field. These results have important implications for the application of gold-silver alloy NPs in surface enhanced spectroscopies and in the fabrication of plasmon-based optoelectronic devices, like dye-sensitized solar cells and plasmon-enhanced organic light-emitting diodes.