Title

Light-Controlled Plasmon Switching Using Hybrid Metal-Semiconductor Nanostructures

Authors

Authors

H. P. Paudel;M. N. Leuenberger

Comments

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Abbreviated Journal Title

Nano Lett.

Keywords

Surface plasmon polaritons; Pauli blocking; quasi-equilibrium; photobleaching; light-controlled SPP switch; OPTICAL-PROPERTIES; ELECTRONIC-STRUCTURE; NANOPARTICLE CHAINS; TITANIUM-DIOXIDE; SURFACE-PLASMONS; GOLD NANOSHELLS; WAVE-GUIDES; TIO2; RUTILE; PSEUDOPOTENTIALS; Chemistry, Multidisciplinary; Chemistry, Physical; Nanoscience &; Nanotechnology; Materials Science, Multidisciplinary; Physics, Applied; Physics, Condensed Matter

Abstract

We present a proof of concept for the dynamic control over the plasmon resonance frequencies in a hybrid metal-semiconductor nanoshell structure with Ag core and TiO2 coating. Our method relies on the temporary change of the dielectric function epsilon of TiO2 achieved through temporarily generated electron-hole pairs by means of a pump laser pulse. This change in e leads to a blue shift of the Ag surface plasmon frequency. We choose TiO2 as the environment of the Ag core because the band gap energy of TiO2 is larger than the Ag surface plasmon energy of our nanoparticles, which allows the surface plasmon being excited without generating electron-hole pairs in the environment at the same time. We calculate the magnitude of the plasmon resonance shift as a function of electron-hole pair density and obtain shifts up to 126 nm at wavelengths around 460 nm. Using our results, we develop the model of a light-controlled surface plasmon polariton switch.

Journal Title

Nano Letters

Volume

12

Issue/Number

6

Publication Date

1-1-2012

Document Type

Article

Language

English

First Page

2690

Last Page

2696

WOS Identifier

WOS:000305106400007

ISSN

1530-6984

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