Anomalous complete opaqueness in a sparse array of gold nanoparticle chains

Journal Article · Mon Aug 22 00:00:00 EDT 2011 · Applied Physics Letters

DOI:https://doi.org/10.1063/1.3631671· OSTI ID:22027724

Benfeng, Bai ^[1]; Xiaowei, Li ^[1]; Vartiainen, Ismo; Lehmuskero, Anni; Turunen, Jari; Kuittinen, Markku; Vahimaa, Pasi ^[2]; Guoguo, Kang ^[1]

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1. State Key Laboratory of Precision Measurement Technology and Instruments, Department of Precision Instruments, Tsinghua University, Beijing 100084 (China)
2. Department of Physics and Mathematics, University of Eastern Finland, P.O. Box 111, FI-80101 Joensuu (Finland)

We report on an anomalous polarization-switching extinction effect in a sparse array of gold nanoparticle chains: under normal incidence of light, the array is almost transparent for one polarization; whereas it is fully opaque (with nearly zero transmittance) for the orthogonal polarization within a narrow band, even though the nanoparticles cover only a tiny fraction (say, 3.5%) of the transparent substrate surface. We reveal that the strong polarization-dependent short-range dipolar coupling and long-range radiative coupling of gold nanoparticles in this highly asymmetric array is responsible for this extraordinary effect.

• OSTI ID: 22027724
• Journal Information: Applied Physics Letters, Vol. 99, Issue 8; Other Information: (c) 2011 American Institute of Physics; Country of input: International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA); ISSN 0003-6951
• Country of Publication: United States
• Language: English

Related Subjects

36 MATERIALS SCIENCE
77 NANOSCIENCE AND NANOTECHNOLOGY
ASYMMETRY
CHAINS
COUPLING
GOLD
NANOSTRUCTURES
OPACITY
PARTICLES
POLARIZATION
REFRACTIVE INDEX
SUBSTRATES
SURFACES
VISIBLE RADIATION