Optical and electrical properties of colloidal (spherical Au)-(spinel ferrite nanorod) heterostructures

We report here a simple synthetic route to Au-FexOy heterostructures in which spinel ferrite (FexOy) grows as a nanorod on a spherical gold (Au) seed. The large red shift in the plasmon resonance in the heterostructures could be explained by a dielectric effect (although we could not entirely exclude a contribution due to electron transfer from Au to defect states at the Au-FexOy interface), while the magnetic properties of the Au-FexOy heterostructures were basically the same as those of the corresponding nanocrystals after Au leaching. In films of Au-FexOy heterostructures the electrical conductivity appeared to be mediated by the Au domains.