Dipole–multipole plasmonic coupling between gold nanorods and titanium nitride nanoparticles for enhanced photothermal conversion

The plasmonic photothermal conversion efficiency can be enhanced by coupling among plasmonic atoms or plasmonic molecules due to the amplified local electric field and extinction cross-section. Recently, it has been theoretically proved that hybridization between dipolar modes and higher order modes can provide higher enhancement than that among dipolar modes in terms of both near- and far-field, which may lead to a higher photothermal conversion rate. In this work, we systematically investigated the photothermal conversion enhancement of plasmonic coupling between a dipolar mode of a titanium nitride nanoparticle (TiN NP) and a higher order mode of a gold nanorod (Au NR), which was compared to that of coupling among TiN NPs’ dipolar modes. We evaluated the photothermal conversion efficiency of dipole–dipole coupling and dipole–multipole coupling in the nanocluster under the illumination of a monochromatic laser of 808 nm wavelength and simulated solar light, respectively. Both experimental tests and numerical simulations suggested that the plasmonic dipole–multipole coupling exhibited higher enhancement in photothermal conversion than dipole–dipole plasmonic coupling.