Hybrids of carbon Nanotube Forests and Gold Nanoparticles for Improved Surface Plasmon Manipulation

We report the fabrication and characterization of hybrids of vertically-aligned carbon nanotube forests and gold nanoparticles for improved manipulation of their plasmonic properties. Raman spectroscopy of nanotube forests performed at the separation area of nanotube-nanoparticles ;shows a scattering enhancement factor of the order of 1 x 10(6). The enhancement is related to the plasmonic coupling of the nanoparticles and is potentially applicable in high-resolution scanning near-field optical microscopy, plasmonics, and photovoltaics.