Article abstract
Nature Physics 3, 348 - 353 (2007)
Published online: 1 April 2007 | doi:10.1038/nphys575
Subject Categories: Nanotechnology | Electronics, photonics and device physics | Optical physics | Techniques and instrumentation
Mapping surface plasmons on a single metallic nanoparticle
Jaysen Nelayah1, Mathieu Kociak1, Odile Stéphan1, F. Javier García de Abajo2, Marcel Tencé1, Luc Henrard3, Dario Taverna1, Isabel Pastoriza-Santos4, Luis M. Liz-Marzán4 & Christian Colliex1
Abstract
Understanding how light interacts with matter at the nanometre scale is a fundamental issue in optoelectronics and nanophotonics. In particular, many applications (such as bio-sensing, cancer therapy and all-optical signal processing) rely on surface-bound optical excitations in metallic nanoparticles. However, so far no experimental technique has been capable of imaging localized optical excitations with sufficient resolution to reveal their dramatic spatial variation over one single nanoparticle. Here, we present a novel method applied on silver nanotriangles, achieving such resolution by recording maps of plasmons in the near-infrared/visible/ultraviolet domain using electron beams instead of photons. This method relies on the detection of plasmons as resonance peaks in the energy-loss spectra of subnanometre electron beams rastered on nanoparticles of well-defined geometrical parameters. This represents a significant improvement in the spatial resolution with which plasmonic modes can be imaged, and provides a powerful tool in the development of nanometre-level optics.
- Laboratoire de Physique des Solides, Bâtiment 510, CNRS UMR 8502, Université Paris Sud XI, F 91405 Orsay, France
- Instituto de Optica, CSIC, Serrano 121, 28006 Madrid, Spain
- Laboratoire de Physique du Solide, Facultés Universitaires Notre Dame de la Paix, Namur B-5000, Belgium
- Departamento de Química Física, Universidade de Vigo, 36310 Vigo, Spain
Correspondence to: Odile Stéphan1 e-mail: stephan@lps.u-psud.fr
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