Unveiling facet effects in metallic nanoparticles to design an efficient plasmonic nanostructure

Abstract

We investigated the role of nanoparticle surface morphology (facets) in estimating the plasmonic properties of nanoparticle-on-a-mirror design or NPOM in the presence of a thicker (20 nm) dielectric layer. Nanoparticle surface morphology differences ranging from smoother surface to multi-facets in the form of a sphere (NSOM), cube (NCOM), and singe bottom faceted sphere (SBF-NSOM) shapes have been employed. Three significant optical properties were observed. Better longer wavelength near-field and far-field resonance spectral positions from NCOM are achieved. Near-field enhancement extracted from SBF-NSOM outperformed NCOM by more than ∼ two times. Plasmonic gap mode enhancement is absent for NSOM in the presence of a larger dielectric layer. The availability of plasmonic gap modes in NCOM and SBF-NSOM, even at a 20 nm thick dielectric layer, is highly beneficial for various plasmonic applications. These differences in optical properties are understood by the role of NP facets in influencing the plasmonic cavity region.