Effect of particle properties and light polarization on the plasmonic resonances in metallic nanoparticles

The resonance behavior of localized surface plasmons in silver and gold nanoparticles was studied in the visible and near-infrared regions of the electromagnetic spectrum. Arrays of nano-sized gold (Au) and silver (Ag) particles with different properties were produced with electron-beam lithography technique over glass substrates. The effect of the particle size, shape variations, period, thickness, metal type, substrate type and sulfidation were studied via transmission and reflectance measurements. The results are compared with the theoretical calculations based on the DDA simulations performed by software developed in this study. We propose a new intensity modulation technique based on localized surface plasmons in nanoparticles with asymmetric shapes. (C) 2010 Optical Society of America