Tailoring and imaging the plasmonic local density of states in crystalline nanoprisms

• Published in: Nature materials 2013-05, Vol.12 (5), p.426-432
• Main Authors: Viarbitskaya, Sviatlana, Teulle, Alexandre, Marty, Renaud, Sharma, Jadab, Girard, Christian, Arbouet, Arnaud, Dujardin, Erik
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Subjects: 639/301/1019/1021; 639/301/930/328; Biomaterials; Chemical Sciences; Condensed Matter Physics; Convolution; Electromagnetic fields; Gold; Luminescence; Material chemistry; Materials Science; Microscopy; Nanostructured materials; Nanotechnology; Optical and Electronic Materials; Single crystals
• ISSN: 1476-1122; 1476-4660
• DOI: 10.1038/nmat3581

Surface plasmon (SP) technologies exploit the spectral and spatial properties of collective electronic oscillations in noble metals placed in an incident optical field. Yet the SP local density of states (LDOS), which rule the energy transducing phenomena between the SP and the electromagnetic field, is much less exploited. Here, we use two-photon luminescence (TPL) microscopy to reveal the SP-LDOS in thin single-crystalline triangular gold nanoprisms produced by a quantitative one-pot synthesis at room temperature. Variations of the polarization and the wavelength of the incident light redistribute the TPL intensity into two-dimensional plasmonic resonator patterns that are faithfully reproduced by theoretical simulations. We demonstrate that experimental TPL maps can be considered as the convolution of the SP-LDOS with the diffraction-limited Gaussian light beam. Finally, the SP modal distribution is tuned by the spatial coupling of nanoprisms, thus allowing a new modal design of plasmonic information processing devices. Much less exploited than the spectral and spatial properties of surface plasmons (SPs) are their local density of states (SP-LDOS), which rule a number of important nanoscale phenomena. Using two-photon luminescence microscopy, the SP-LDOS in ultrathin gold nanoprisms is now visualized directly, allowing for the SP modal distribution to be tuned.