Engineering high refractive index sensitivity through the internal and external composition of bimetallic nanocrystals†
Abstract
High refractive index sensitivity (RIS) of branched Au–Pd nanocrystals (NCs) is engineered through lowering the dielectric dispersion at the NC resonant wavelength with internal or external atomic % Pd. To our knowledge, these NCs display the highest ensemble RIS measurement for colloids with LSPR maximum band positions ≤900 nm, and these results are corroborated with FDTD computations.