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Symmetry breaking in individual plasmonic nanoparticles
Hui Wang1, Yanpeng Wu, Britt Lassiter
1Department of Chemistry, Laboratory for Nanophotonics, Rice University, Houston, TX 77005, USA.
Summary
Offsetting the core in metallic nanoshells breaks symmetry, enabling stronger light-matter interactions. This leads to multipeaked spectra and enhanced local fields, improving plasmonic properties for nanophotonics applications.
Area of Science:
- Plasmonics
- Nanophotonics
- Materials Science
Background:
- Metallic nanoshells exhibit plasmon resonances from hybridized modes.
- Concentric nanoshells follow specific selection rules for plasmon coupling.
Purpose of the Study:
- Investigate the effect of core offset on plasmon resonances in metallic nanoshells.
- Analyze the resulting changes in spectral properties and local-field enhancements.
Main Methods:
- Theoretical modeling of plasmon modes in offset-core nanoshells.
- Simulations of electromagnetic field distributions.
- Analysis of spectroscopic data from single nanoparticles.
Main Results:
- Reduced symmetry in offset-core nanoshells relaxes selection rules.
- Admixture of dipolar components into plasmon modes.
- Observation of core offset-dependent multipeaked spectra.
- Significantly larger external local-field enhancements compared to concentric nanoshells.
Conclusions:
- Core offset in metallic nanoshells offers a pathway to tune plasmonic properties.
- This asymmetry enhances light-matter interactions and local field effects.
- Offset-core nanoshells present improved performance for nanophotonic applications.