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Nano Research 2019, 12(1): 63-68 https://doi.org/10.1007/s12274-018-2178-6
Research Article | Issue | Published: 31 August 2018

Origin of strong and narrow localized surface plasmon resonance of copper nanocubes

Show Author's Information Peng Zheng1,§,  Haibin Tang1,§,  Botong Liu1,2,  Sujan Kasani1,3,  Ling Huang2( ),  Nianqiang Wu1( )
Department of Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering,West Virginia University,Morgantown,West Virginia,26506-6106,USA;
Institute of Advanced Materials,Nanjing Tech University,Nanjing,211816,China;
Lane Department of Computer Science and Electrical Engineering, West Virginia University, Morgantown, West Virginia 26506, USA

§ Peng Zheng and Haibin Tang contributed equally to this work.

Keywords:
localized surface plasmon resonance, copper, nanocube, discrete dipole approximation, interband transition
Topics:
CopperElectronsMetal nanoparticlesPlasmonics Semiconductor quantum wells
Cite this article:
Zheng P, Tang H, Liu B, et al. Origin of strong and narrow localized surface plasmon resonance of copper nanocubes. Nano Research, 2019, 12(1): 63-68. https://doi.org/10.1007/s12274-018-2178-6
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Abstract Full text Electronic supplementary material About this article

Inexpensive copper nanoparticles are generally thought to possess weak and broad localized surface plasmon resonance (LSPR). The present experimental and theoretical studies show that tailoring the Cu nanoparticle to a cubic shape results in a single intense, narrow, and asymmetric LSPR line shape, which is even superior to round-shaped gold nanoparticles. In this study, the dielectric function of copper is decomposed into an interband transition component and a free-electron component. This allows interband transition-induced plasmon damping to be visualized both spectrally and by surface polarization charges. The results reveal that the LSPR of Cu nanocubes originates from the corner mode as it is spectrally separated from the interband transitions. In addition, the interband transitions lead to severe damping of the local electromagnetic field but the cubic corner LSPR mode survives. Cu nanocubes display an extinction coefficient comparable to the dipole mode of a gold nanosphere with the same volume and show a larger local electromagnetic field enhancement. These results will guide development of inexpensive plasmonic copper-based nanomaterials.


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Abstract
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Electronic supplementary material
About this article

Origin of strong and narrow localized surface plasmon resonance of copper nanocubes

Show Author's information Peng Zheng1,§, Haibin Tang1,§, Botong Liu1,2, Sujan Kasani1,3, Ling Huang2( ), Nianqiang Wu1( )
Department of Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering,West Virginia University,Morgantown,West Virginia,26506-6106,USA;
Institute of Advanced Materials,Nanjing Tech University,Nanjing,211816,China;
Lane Department of Computer Science and Electrical Engineering, West Virginia University, Morgantown, West Virginia 26506, USA

§ Peng Zheng and Haibin Tang contributed equally to this work.

Abstract

Inexpensive copper nanoparticles are generally thought to possess weak and broad localized surface plasmon resonance (LSPR). The present experimental and theoretical studies show that tailoring the Cu nanoparticle to a cubic shape results in a single intense, narrow, and asymmetric LSPR line shape, which is even superior to round-shaped gold nanoparticles. In this study, the dielectric function of copper is decomposed into an interband transition component and a free-electron component. This allows interband transition-induced plasmon damping to be visualized both spectrally and by surface polarization charges. The results reveal that the LSPR of Cu nanocubes originates from the corner mode as it is spectrally separated from the interband transitions. In addition, the interband transitions lead to severe damping of the local electromagnetic field but the cubic corner LSPR mode survives. Cu nanocubes display an extinction coefficient comparable to the dipole mode of a gold nanosphere with the same volume and show a larger local electromagnetic field enhancement. These results will guide development of inexpensive plasmonic copper-based nanomaterials.

Keywords: localized surface plasmon resonance, copper, nanocube, discrete dipole approximation, interband transition

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Publication history
Copyright
Acknowledgements

Publication history

Received: 08 June 2018
Revised: 15 July 2018
Accepted: 14 August 2018
Published: 31 August 2018
Issue date: January 2019

Copyright

© Tsinghua University Press and Springer-Verlag GmbH Germany, part of Springer Nature 2018

Acknowledgements

Acknowledgements

This work was supported by NIH (R15NS087515). Use of WVU Shared Research Facilities was acknowledged. We are also grateful to the fruitful discussion with Dr. Alexander Govorov at Ohio University.

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