Fanoshells: Nanoparticles with Built-in Fano Resonances

A nanoparticle consisting of a dielectric (SiO2) and metallic (Au) shell layer surrounding a solid Au nanoparticle core can be designed with its superradiant and subradiant plasmon modes overlapping in energy, resulting in a Fano resonance in its optical response Synthesis of this nanoparticle around an asymmetric core yields a structure that possesses additional Fano resonances as revealed by single particle dark field microspectroscopy A mass-and-spring coupled oscillator model provides an excellent description of the plasmon interactions and resultant optical response of this nanoparticle