Gold Nanowires: Their Synthesis and Surface Plasmon Resonances

Abstract

The objective of the project was to fabricate gold nano-rods and study the optical properties of gold nano-particles when coupled to Indium Arsenide quantum dots. The gold nano-rods were synthesized by a seed-mediated growth method using CTAB and BDAC as the surfactants, and the feasibility of changing the aspect ratio of the rods and their Plasmon resonance frequency was studied by varying the concentrations of these two surfactants. Finally, gold nano-rods with longitudinal Plasmon resonance of 940 nm were synthesized. Next, we studied the feasibility of coupling gold nano-wires to indium arsenide quantum dots for investigating their optical properties and studying the spontaneous emission enhancement of InAs QDs in the presence of the plasmon resonances of gold nano-wires. The sample containing nano-wires coupled to quantum dots was excited by red laser, and the emission was passed through a spectrometer and the spectrum was obtained.