Actively Tuned Plasmons on Elastomerically Driven Au Nanoparticle Dimers

We demonstrate a novel way to actively tune surface plasmons by fabricating plasmonic nanostructures on stretchable elastomeric films. This allows reversible modification of the metal geometry on the nanometer scale. Using 100 nm scale Au nanoparticle dimers whose spacing is stretch-tuned reveals radically different spectral tuning than previously reported for sub-10-nm nanoparticles, but which can be explained by a revised interpretation of existing models. Tuning plasmons in this way offers a much more robust way than lithography to interrogate the physics of localized plasmons and has applications in optimized surface-enhanced luminescence and Raman scattering.