3D Characterization and Plasmon Mapping of Gold Nanorods Welded by Femtosecond Laser Irradiation
Authors/Creators
- 1. EMAT, University of Antwerp, Groenenborgerlaan 171, B-2020 Antwerp, Belgium
- 2. NANOlab Center of Excellence, University of Antwerp, Groenenborgerlaan 171, B-2020 Antwerp, Belgium
- 3. CIC biomaGUNE, Basque Research and Technology Alliance (BRTA), Paseo de Miramón 182, 20014 Donostia-San Sebastián, Spain
- 4. Departamento de Química Física, Universidad Complutense de Madrid, Avenida Complutense s/n, 28040 Madrid, Spain
- 5. CIBER de Bioingeniería, Biomateriales y Nanomedicina (CIBER-BBN), Paseo de Miramón 182, 20014 Donostia-San Sebastián, Spain
- 6. Ikerbasque, Basque Foundation for Science, 48013 Bilbao, Spain
Description
Ultrafast laser irradiation can induce morphological and structural changes in plasmonic nanoparticles. Gold nanorods (Au NRs), in particular, can be welded together upon irradiation with femtosecond laser pulses, leading to dimers and trimers through the formation of necks between individual nanorods. We used electron tomography to determine the 3D (atomic) structure at such necks for representative welding geometries and to characterize the induced defects. The spatial distribution of localized surface plasmon modes for different welding configurations was assessed by electron energy loss spectroscopy. Additionally, we were able to directly compare the plasmon line width of single-crystalline and welded Au NRs with single defects at the same resonance energy, thus making a direct link between the structural and plasmonic properties. In this manner, we show that the occurrence of (single) defects results in significant plasmon broadening.
Notes
This project has received funding from the European Research Council under the European Union’s Horizon 2020 research and innovation program (ERC Consolidator Grant Nos. 815128 REALNANO and 770887 PICOMETRICS). The authors gratefully acknowledge funding from the Research Foundation Flanders (FWO, Belgium) through project funding G.0381.16N and G.0267.18N. W.A. acknowledges an Individual Fellowship funded by the Marie Sklodowska-Curie Actions (MSCA) in Horizon 2020 program (Grant No. 797153, SOPMEN). G.G.-R. acknowledge receipt of FPI Fellowship from the Spanish MINECO. This work has been funded by the Spanish Ministry of Science, Innovation and Universities (MICIU) (Grant Nos. RTI2018-095844–B-I00 and MAT2017-86659-R), and the Madrid Regional Government (Grant No. P2018/NMT-4389). A.B. acknowledges funding from FWO Project G093417N and from the European Union’s Horizon 2020 research and innovation programme under Grant Agreement No. 823717 ESTEEM3. L.M.L.-M. acknowledges the Maria de Maeztu Units of Excellence Program from the Spanish State Research Agency (Grant No. MDM-2017-0720).