Fabrication of non-planar silver nano-arc-gap arrays

Mechanically tunable sub-10 nm metal gap by stretching PDMS substrate

Manipulating light in sub-10 nm or subnanometer metal nanogaps is crucial to study the strong interaction between electromagnetic waves and matters. However, the fabrication of metallic nanogaps with precisely controlled size and high-throughput still remains a challenge. Here, we developed an approach to actively control the gap distance between adjacent metal nanoparticles from 140 nm to sub-10 nm or even 0 nm via mechanical stretching process. To demonstrate this method, we manufactured the gold disk arrays in a square lattice on the polydimethylsiloxane (PDMS) substrate through interference lithography and gold deposition, and sub-10 nm interparticle gap was achieved as exerting a strain of 100% to the PDMS substrate. Transmission spectra show a remarkable red shift of the dipole resonance with narrowing gap from 140 nm to sub-10 nm. Importantly, a universal scaling law between the gap distance in nanoscale and the stretching amount of PDMS substrate in macroscopic scale were demonstrated experimentally and theoretically. Our method can tune the gap distance continuously and reversibly, suggesting potential applications in surface-enhanced Raman scattering, single photon emitter and quantum tunneling of electric charge.

Self-aligned colloidal lithography for controllable and tuneable plasmonic nanogaps

Au nanoparticles (NPs) deposited on a substrate function as ring shaped colloidal shadow masks. Using e-beam evaporation of gold, nanometer sized gaps are formed as a result. The size of these gaps can be accurately tuned by controlling the thickness of the gold deposition, thereby tuning the plasmonic coupling of the NPs with the substrate. The clean cavity produced between the Au NPs and the Au film provides an excellent SERS platform for trace molecule detection.

3D plasmonic nanobowl platform for the study of exosomes in solution

Thin silver film coated nanobowl Surface Enhanced Raman Spectroscopy (SERS) substrates are used to capture exosomes in solution for SERS measurements that can provide biochemical analysis of intact and ruptured exosomes. Exosomes derived via Total Exosome Isolation Reagent (TEIR) as well as ultracentrifugation (UC) from the SKOV3 cell line were analyzed. Spectra of exosomes derived via TEIR are dominated by a signal characteristic for the TEIR kit that needs to be subtracted for all measurements. Differences in SERS spectra recorded at different times during the drying of the exosome solution are statistically analyzed with Principal Component Analysis (PCA). At the beginning of the drying process, SERS spectra of exosomes exhibit peaks characteristic for both lipids and proteins. Later on during the drying process, new SERS peaks develop, suggesting that the initially intact exosome ruptures over time. This time-dependent evolution of SERS peaks enables analysis of exosomal membrane contents and the contents inside the exosomes.

Polarization-dependent enhanced photoluminescence and polarization-independent emission rate of quantum dots on gold elliptical nanodisc arrays

We have fabricated gold (Au) elliptical nanodisc (ND) arrays via three-beam interference lithography and electron beam deposition of gold. The enhanced photoluminescence intensity and emission rate of quantum dots (QDs) near to the Au elliptical NDs have been studied by tuning the nearest distance between quantum dots and Au elliptical NDs. We found that the photoluminescence intensity is polarization-dependent with the degree of polarization being equal to that of the light extinction of the Au elliptical NDs, while the emission rate is polarization-independent. This is resulted from the plasmon-coupled emission via the coupling between the QD dipole and the plasmon nano-antenna. Our experiments fully confirm the evidence of the plasmophore concept proposed recently in the interaction of the QDs with metal nanoparticles.

Tuning the plasmon resonance of a nano-mouth array

We have developed a method to fabricate a silver nano-mouth array via a cost-effective inverted hemispherical colloidal lithography method. It shows that the nano-mouth supports a strong localized surface plasmon resonance, which results in an extraordinary optical transmission peak. When the nano-mouth array is transferred onto a polydimethylsiloxane (PDMS) substrate, we show that the localized surface plasmon resonance can be tuned via the swelling and recovery of the PDMS in ethyl acetate solvent. The resonant peak can be tuned with a relative bandwidth of over 10%. We also demonstrate the refractive index sensitivity of the nano-mouth array at a wavelength of 1300 nm. This structure might be useful for optical microfluidic devices and sensors.