Controlling optical properties of metallic multi-shell nanoparticles through suppressed surface plasmon resonance

Herein, we report the surface plasmon resonance of plasmonic multi-shell nanoparticles compared to bimetallic Ag/Au hollow nanospheres of similar final size, shape, and percent composition. The surface plasmon resonance of solid and hollow nanoparticles exhibited a quadrupole mode that was particularly prominent around the 100 nm size regime, while multi-shell nanoparticles did not show a quadrupole mode at a similar size. In the latter case, the quadrupole mode of the outermost nanoshell was suppressed by the dipole modes of the inner shells, and the suppression of the quadrupole mode was not affected by the shape of the inner nanostructures. Light interaction of the multi-shell nanoparticle was investigated through simulated electromagnetic field distribution obtained by finite-difference time domain (FDTD) calculations which were in a good agreement with the results of surface-enhanced Raman spectroscopy (SERS).