Spatial control of coherent anti-stokes emission with height-modulated gold zig-zag nanowires

Intrinsic coherent anti-Stokes emission is observed in lithographically patterned gold nanowires. Polarization dependent measurements reveal that the nanostructure's anti-Stokes response is polarized in the direction of the transverse surface plasmon resonance of the wire. We have used specially fabricated gold nanozigzag wires that are modulated in height between 20 and 80 nm to demonstrate tuning of the plasmon polarizability through control of wire height. Stronger anti-Stokes emission is shown to correlate with structures that support higher plasmon polarizability, underlining the primary role of the transverse plasmon resonance in the generation of anti-Stokes radiation from gold nanostructures. Our results also point out that a potential surface-enhanced coherent anti-Stokes Raman scattering (CARS) assay for detecting the vibrational response of surface-tethered molecules needs to include a mechanism for separating the molecular response from the strong intrinsic anti-Stokes emission of the metallic nanosubstrate.