Enhanced Sensitivity of Delocalized Plasmonic Nanostructures

This work reports on the observation of a delocalized surface plasmon resonance (DSPR) phenomenon in linear chains of square-shaped silver nanoparticles (NP) as a function of the chain length and the distance between the nanoparticles in the chain. Transmission spectra of the silver nanoparticle chains reveal the emergence of new, red-shifted extinction peaks that depend strongly on the spacing between the nanoparticles and the polarization of the exciting light with respect to the chain axis. As the spacing between the nanoparticles in the linear chain decreases and the number of nanoparticles in the linear chain increases, the strength of the new extinction features increase strongly. These changes can be described by a tight-binding model for the coupled chain, which indicates that the origin of the phenomenon is consistent with an increased coupling between the nanoparticles. FDTD calculations reveal that the electric field is strongly enhanced between the nanoparticles in the chain. The DSPR response is found to be much more sensitive to dielectric changes than the localized surface plasmon resonance (LSPR).