Multifactor-Controlled Non-Monotonic Plasmon Shift of Ordered Gold Nanodisk Arrays: Shape-Dependent Interparticle Coupling

Surface plasmon resonance (SPR) absorption spectra of gold nanodisks hexagonally arranged in planar arrays have been studied by using coupled dipole method and quasi-static approximation. The calculation results reveal that the increasing aspect ratio (AR) of gold disks in the close-packed nanoarray leads to SPR blue shift firstly and then red shift. The critical AR corresponding to the maximum blue shift can be controlled by tuning the interparticle distance and particle size. The physical mechanism of this non-monotonic SPR shift is investigated based on the competition between the influences from shape factor and arranging structure of the array. Although increasing the semi-minor axis of gold disk reduces the AR and leads to a blue shift of SPR, this increasing semi-minor axis also reduces the average gap between two neighboring disks and enhances their coupling. Furthermore, the coulombic attraction between two neighboring disks introduces an additional plasmon damping and results in a red shift of SPR. This competition between AR and interparticle coupling improves the tuning ability of SPR in anisotropic metallic nanoparticle arrays and presents a potential for design and fabrication of optical biochip based on SPR.