Web Release Date: December 29,
Tunable Plasmonic Response from Alkanethiolate-Stabilized Gold Nanoparticle Superlattices: Evidence of Near-Field Coupling



and
Institute of Nanoengineering and Microsystems and Department of Physics, National Tsing-Hua University, Hsinchu 30013, Taiwan, Republic of China, and Department of Chemistry and Center for Nanoscience and Nanoengineering, National Chung-Hsing University, Taichung 402, Taiwan, Republic of China
Received September 23, 2007

Abstract:
We report on the self-assembly of large-area, highly ordered 2D superlattices of alkanethiolate-stabilized gold nanoparticles (~10.5 nm in core diameter) onto quartz substrates with varying lattice constants, which can be controlled by the alkyl chain lengths, ranging from C12 (1-dodecanethiolate), C14 (1-tetradecanethiolate), C16 (1-hexadecanethiolate), to C18 (1-octadecanethiolate). These 2D nanoparticle superlattices exhibit strong collective surface plasmon resonance that is tunable via the near-field coupling of adjacent nanoparticles. The approach presented here provides a unique and viable means of building artificial "plasmonic crystals" with precisely designed optical properties, which can be useful for the emerging fields of plasmonics, such as subwavelength integrated optics.
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