Localized surface plasmon resonance enhanced magneto-optical activity in core-shell Fe-Ag nanoparticles

Metallic nanoparticles (NPs) are suitable platforms for miniaturized biosensing based on their optical and magneto-optical properties. It is possible to enhance the sensitivity of specific kinds of NPs by exploiting their optical and magneto-optical properties under suitable external magnetic field modulation. Here, the magneto-optical properties of Fe-Ag core-shell ferromagnet-noble metal NPs have been investigated as a function of the incident light frequency. For Fe-Ag NPs with a concentration ratio around 25: 75, an optical absorption band centered at 3 eV due to localized surface plasmon resonance (LSPR) excitation is observed. A strong enhancement of the Faraday rotation is also observed, greatly exceeding the value estimated for pure Fe NPs, also associated with the LSPR excitation. Our findings open up the possibility of highly sensitive miniaturized magneto-optically modulated biosensing. (c) 2010 American Institute of Physics. [doi:10.1063/1.3355905]