Engineering Thermoswitchable Lithographic Hybrid Gold Nanorods as Plasmonic Devices for Sensing and Active Plasmonics Applications

• DOI: 10.1021/acsphotonics.5b00280
• Publication Date: 2015-07-23T16:00:28Z
• Authors: Mai Nguyen; Xiaonan Sun; Emmanuelle Lacaze; Pamina Martina Wi...; Andreas Hohenau; Joachim R. Krenn; Céline Bourdillon; Azzdine Lamouri; Johan Grand; Georges Lévi; Leïla Boubekeur-L...; Claire Mangeney; Nordin Félidj
• Keywords: [PHYS]Physics [physics]; [CHIM] Chemical Sciences; [CHIM]Chemical Sciences; 02 engineering and technology; 0210 nano-technology; [PHYS] Physics [physics]

In this article, we aim to investigate the sensitivity of regular arrays of hybrid plasmonic nanostructures to variations in properties of the local environment (temperature, refractive index, polymer thickness), in the context of sensing and active plasmonic applications. A proper description and characterization of such hybrid systems is indeed essential in order to provide designed criteria for efficient stimuli-responsive devices. As an ideal model, we introduce a novel kind of hybrid plasmonic core–shell system made of lithographic gold nanorods (GNRs), coated by a thermosensitive polymer shell based on poly(N-isopropylacrylamide) (pNIPAM). The grafting of the polymer on the GNRs results from a multistep but simple approach in order to confine the pNIPAM brushes on the GNRs and to control the thickness of the polymer coating. We show that the optical response of the plasmonic hybrid structures (GNR@pNIPAM) is strongly modified upon a variation of the external temperature, due to a physical change of ...