Tunable Surface Plasmon Resonance of Gold Nanoparticles Self-Assembled on Fused Silica Substrate

Absorbance spectra of gold nanoparticles synthesized by deposition of an ultrathin gold film on fused silica substrate with electron-beam evaporation followed by rapid thermal annealing have been obtained from spectrophotometry measurement. The surface plasmon resonance wavelength can be tuned by controlling the synthesis conditions and or changing the dielectric environments. Increasing the nanoparticle size leads to a redshift in the surface plasmon wavelength. Either redshifts or blueshifts of the surface plasmon wavelength could be observed depending on the annealing temperature. On the other hand, the presence of a SiO2 capping layer causes a redshift in the surface plasmon wavelength. (C) 2010 The Electrochemical Society. [DOI: 10.1149/1.3493964] All rights reserved.