Vibrational coupling in plasmonic molecules

Plasmon hybridization theory, inspired by molecular orbital theory, has been extremely successful in describing the near-field coupling in clusters of plasmonic nanoparticles, also known as plasmonic molecules. However, the vibrational modes of plasmonic molecules have been virtually unexplored. By...

Full description

Saved in:
Bibliographic Details
Published inProceedings of the National Academy of Sciences - PNAS Vol. 114; no. 44; pp. 11621 - 11626
Main Authors Yi, Chongyue, Dongare, Pratiksha D., Su, Man-Nung, Wang, Wenxiao, Chakraborty, Debadi, Wen, Fangfang, Chang, Wei-Shun, Sader, John E., Nordlander, Peter, Halas, Naomi J., Link, Stephan
Format Journal Article
LanguageEnglish
Published United States National Academy of Sciences 31.10.2017
Subjects
Acoustic coupling
Coupling (molecular)
Hybridization
Materials elasticity
Molecular orbitals
Nanoparticles
Nanostructured materials
Optical control
Phonons
Physical Sciences
Spectrum analysis
Substrates
optomechanics
plasmonics
coherent phonon
ultrafast spectroscopy
Online AccessGet full text

Cover

More Information
Summary:Plasmon hybridization theory, inspired by molecular orbital theory, has been extremely successful in describing the near-field coupling in clusters of plasmonic nanoparticles, also known as plasmonic molecules. However, the vibrational modes of plasmonic molecules have been virtually unexplored. By designing precisely configured plasmonic molecules of varying complexity and probing them at the individual plasmonic molecule level, intramolecular coupling of acoustic modes, mediated by the underlying substrate, is observed. The strength of this coupling can be manipulated through the configuration of the plasmonic molecules. Surprisingly, classical continuum elastic theory fails to account for the experimental trends, which are well described by a simple coupled oscillator picture that assumes the vibrational coupling is mediated by coherent phonons with low energies. These findings provide a route to the systematic optical control of the gigahertz response of metallic nanostructures, opening the door to new optomechanical device strategies.
Bibliography:ObjectType-Article-1
SourceType-Scholarly Journals-1
ObjectType-Feature-2
content type line 23
Edited by George C. Schatz, Northwestern University, Evanston, IL, and approved September 18, 2017 (received for review July 12, 2017)
Author contributions: C.Y., M.-N.S., W.-S.C., J.E.S., P.N., N.J.H., and S.L. designed research; C.Y., P.D.D., M.-N.S., D.C., F.W., and W.-S.C. performed research; C.Y., W.W., and D.C. analyzed data; and C.Y., W.-S.C., J.E.S., P.N., N.J.H., and S.L. wrote the paper.
ISSN:0027-8424
1091-6490
DOI:10.1073/pnas.1712418114