Plasmonic nanomaterials (P-NM) are receiving attention due to their excellent properties, which include surface-enhanced Raman scattering (SERS), localized surface plasmon resonance (LSPR) effects, plasmonic resonance energy transfer (PRET), and magneto optical (MO) effects. To obtain such plasmonic properties, many nanomaterials have been developed, including metal nanoparticles (MNP), bimetal...

Diatoms are single-celled algaes that make photonic-crystal-like silica shells or frustules with hierarchical micro& nano-scale features consisting of two-dimensional periodic pores. In this paper, we present an innovative label-free optical sensor based on a biological-plasmonic hybrid nanostructure by self-assembling silver (Ag) nanoparticles into diatom frustules. The photonic-crystal-like d...

DNA-functionalized nanoparticles, including plasmonic nanoparticles, can be assembled into a wide range of crystalline arrays via synthetically programmable DNA hybridization interactions. Here we demonstrate that such assemblies can be grown epitaxially on lithographically patterned templates, eliminating grain boundaries and enabling fine control over orientation and size of assemblies up to ...

We demonstrate a three dimensional nanoparticle trapping approach aided by the surface plasmon resonance of metallic nanostructures. The localized surface plasmon resonance effect provides strong electromagnetic field enhancement, which enables confinement of nanoparticles in the three-dimensional space. Numerical simulations indicate that the plasmonic structure provides approximately two orde...

Graphene is used as the thinnest possible spacer between gold nanoparticles and a gold substrate. This creates a robust, repeatable, and stable subnanometer gap for massive plasmonic field enhancements. White light spectroscopy of single 80 nm gold nanoparticles reveals plasmonic coupling between the particle and its image within the gold substrate. While for a single graphene layer, spectral d...

Within the MNPBEM toolbox, developed for the simulation of plasmonic nanoparticles using a boundary element method approach, we show how to include substrate and layer structure effects. We develop the methodology for solving Maxwell’s equations using scalar and vector potentials within the inhomogeneous dielectric environment of a layer structure. We show that the implementation of our approac...

Plasmonic nanocrystals with hot spots are able to localize optical energy in small spaces. In such physical systems, near-field interactions between molecules and plasmons can become especially strong. This paper considers the case of a nanoparticle dimer and a chiral biomolecule. In our model, a chiral molecule is placed in the gap between two plasmonic nanoparticles, where the electromagnetic...

The synergistic physical and biological effects of selective targeting and activation of plasmonic nanoparticles were studied for a transient vapor nanobubble mode. Simultaneous optical activation of two plasmon resonances in multi-nanoparticle clusters significantly improved the selectivity and efficacy of the nanobubble generation through and was termed "rainbow plasmonic nanobubbles." The ra...

We report a surface modification protocol to control nanoporous gold (NPG) disk morphology and tune its plasmonic resonance. Enlarged pore size up to !20 nm within 60 s dealloying time has been achieved by adsorbing halides onto alloy surfaces in-between two dealloying steps. In addition, plasmonic resonance has been significantly red-shifted by up to !258 nm by the surface modification. Furthe...

Pure and Au-decorated sub-micrometer ZnO spheres were successfully grown on glass substrates by simple chemical bath deposition and photoreduction methods. The analysis of scanning electron microscopy (SEM) and transmission electron microscopy (TEM) images, energy-dispersive X-ray spectroscopy (EDS), UV-vis absorption, and photoluminescence (PL) spectra results were used to verify the incorpora...