Effects of vertex truncation of polyhedral nanostructures on localized surface plasmon resonance

Polyhedral nanostructures are widely used to enable localized surface plasmon resonance (LSPR). In practice, vertices of such structures are almost always truncated due to limitations of nanofabrication processes. This paper studies the effects of vertex truncation of polyhedral nanostructures on the characteristics of LSPR sensing. The optical properties and sensing performance of triangular nanoplates with truncated vertices are investigated using electrodynamics analysis and verified by experiment. The experimental results correlated with simulation analysis demonstrate that the fabricated triangular nanoplate array has a truncation ratio, defined as the length of truncation along an edge of the triangle over the edge length, of approximately 12.8%. This significantly influences optical properties of the nanostructures, resulting in poorer sensing performance. These insights can be used to guide the design and fabrication of nanostructures for high performance LSPR sensors. (C) 2009 Optical Society of America