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Mapping surface plasmons on a single metallic nanoparticle

Nature Physics volume 3, pages 348–353 (2007)Cite this article

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.

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Figure 1: STEM–EELS measurements on an equilateral Ag nanoprism with 78-nm-long sides.
Figure 2: Experimental and simulated EEL spectra.
Figure 3: Experimental and simulated EELS amplitude maps.
Figure 4: Experimental EELS study of an asymmetric triangular Ag nanoprism.

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Acknowledgements

This work was partially supported by the Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique (CNRS) through the ACN NR131, the Spanish Ministerio de Educaciø´n y Ciencia (Project No. MAT2004-02991) and the EU project No. STRP-016881-SPANS. L.H. is supported by the Belgian FNRS and the Belgian interuniversity project PAI-IUAP 5/01.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Laboratoire de Physique des Solides, Bâtiment 510, CNRS UMR 8502, Université Paris Sud XI, F 91405 Orsay, France

    Jaysen Nelayah, Mathieu Kociak, Odile Stéphan, Marcel Tencé, Dario Taverna & Christian Colliex

  2. Instituto de Optica, CSIC, Serrano 121, 28006 Madrid, Spain

    F. Javier García de Abajo

  3. Laboratoire de Physique du Solide, Facultés Universitaires Notre Dame de la Paix, Namur B-5000, Belgium

    Luc Henrard

  4. Departamento de Química Física, Universidade de Vigo, 36310 Vigo, Spain

    Isabel Pastoriza-Santos & Luis M. Liz-Marzán

Authors
  1. Jaysen Nelayah
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  4. F. Javier García de Abajo
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  10. Christian Colliex
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Contributions

This is a collective study in which members at (1) have mostly carried out experiments and measurements, members at (2) and (3) have mostly contributed to modelling and members at (4) have been responsible for the synthesis of the Ag nanoprisms.

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Correspondence to Odile Stéphan.

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The authors declare no competing financial interests.

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Nelayah, J., Kociak, M., Stéphan, O. et al. Mapping surface plasmons on a single metallic nanoparticle. Nature Phys 3, 348–353 (2007). https://doi.org/10.1038/nphys575

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