Light-Controlled Plasmon Switching Using Hybrid Metal-Semiconductor Nanostructures

    Authors

    H. P. Paudel;M. N. Leuenberger

    Comments

    Authors: contact us about adding a copy of your work at STARS@ucf.edu

    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

    Share

    COinS