Issue 34, 2022

A planar plasmonic nano-gap and its array for enhancing light-matter interactions at the nanoscale

Abstract

Gap surface plasmon (GSP) modes, the localized electromagnetic modes existing between two metal structures separated by a nano-gap, are able to support subwavelength confinement and enhancement of a light field upon resonance excitation. Such features can greatly facilitate various light-matter interactions at the nanoscale. Here, we demonstrate a planar nano-gap architecture existing between a pair of tip-shaped gold pads. The nano-gap gives rise to plasmon resonances with strong light confinement close to the tip surfaces in the visible to near-infrared spectral region. Accordingly, we showed that the plasmonic gold nano-gap can exhibit strong intrinsic second-harmonic generation (SHG) and significantly enhance the Raman scattering signal from small molecules. Furthermore, by arranging the nano-gap into arrays, a stronger SHG signal can be obtained. In addition, the surface enhanced Raman scattering (SERS) activity is also improved by two orders of magnitude compared to that of a single nano-gap. Overall, the findings in our study have demonstrated the potential applications of a plasmonic nano-gap and its arrays for signal generation and sensitive chemical sensing at the nanoscale.

Graphical abstract: A planar plasmonic nano-gap and its array for enhancing light-matter interactions at the nanoscale

Supplementary files

Article information

Article type
Paper
Submitted
06 Mar 2022
Accepted
27 Jul 2022
First published
27 Jul 2022

Nanoscale, 2022,14, 12257-12264

A planar plasmonic nano-gap and its array for enhancing light-matter interactions at the nanoscale

L. Zhang, X. Wang, H. Chen, C. Liu and S. Deng, Nanoscale, 2022, 14, 12257 DOI: 10.1039/D2NR01282K

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