Tuning surface plasmon resonance by the plastic deformation of Au nanoparticles within a diamond anvil cell

In this work, surface plasmon resonance (SPR) is tuned by controlling the deformation of Au nanoparticles within a diamond anvil cell (DAC). Colloidal Au nanoparticles were loaded into a DAC and pressurized into a mixture of ice and Au nanoparticles. The Au nanoparticles were reshaped by their anisotropic compression of surrounding ice, which leads to the spectral variations of absorption peaks, broadening or red-shifting. These spectral features are well tuned by controlling the deformation process of Au nanoparticle with choosing the initial intended thickness of DAC gasket. The mechanical properties of Au nanoparticles are also revealed by the shape-dependent SPR in nanometer scale. This result provides us a way to fabricate Au nanoparticles into new shapes and tune SPR of metallic nanoparticles with pressure. (C) 2015 AIP Publishing LLC.