Rational Assembly of Optoplasmonic Hetero-nanoparticle Arrays with Tunable Photonic-Plasmonic Resonances

Metallic and dielectric nanoparticles (NPs) have synergistic electromagnetic properties but their positioning into morphologically defined hybrid arrays with novel optical properties still poses significant challenges. A template-guided self-assembly strategy is introduced for the positioning of metallic and dielectric NPs at pre-defined lattice sites. The chemical assembly approach facilitates the fabrication of clusters of metallic NPs with interparticle separations of only a few nanometers in a landscape of dielectric NPs positioned hundreds of nanometers apart. This approach is used to generate two-dimensional interdigitated arrays of 250 nm diameter TiO2 NPs and clusters of electromagnetically strongly coupled 60 nm Au NPs. The morphology-dependent near- and far-field responses of the resulting multiscale optoplasmonic arrays are analyzed in detail. Elastic and inelastic scattering spectroscopy in combination with electromagnetic simulations reveal that optoplasmonic arrays sustain delocalized photonic-plasmonic modes that achieve a cascaded E-field enhancement in the gap junctions of the Au NP clusters and simultaneously increase the E-field intensity throughout the entire array.