title: Spectral degeneracy breaking of the plasmon resonance of single metal nanoparticles by nanoscale near-field photopolymerization.
abstract: We report on controlled nanoscale photopolymerization triggered by enhanced near fields of silver nanoparticles excited close to their dipolar plasmon resonance. By anisotropic polymerization, symmetry of the refractive index of the surrounding medium was broken: C infinity v symmetry turned to C2v symmetry. This allowed for spectral degeneracy breaking in particles plasmon resonance whose apparent peak became continuously tunable with the incident polarization. From the spectral peak, we deduced the refractive-index ellipsoid fabricated around the particles. In addition to this control of optical properties of metal nanoparticles, this method opens new routes for nanoscale photochemistry and provides a new way of quantification of the magnitude of near fields of localized surface plasmons.
authors.affiliation: Laboratoire de Nanotechnologie et d'Instrumentation Optique, ICD CNRS FRE 2848, Université de Technologie de Troyes, 12 rue Marie Curie, BP 2060, 10010 Troyes Cedex, France.
authors.forename: H Ibn
authors.initials: HI
authors.lastname: El Ahrach
authors.forename: R
authors.initials: R
authors.lastname: Bachelot
authors.forename: A
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Vial
authors.forename: G
authors.initials: G
authors.lastname: Lérondel
authors.forename: J
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Plain
authors.forename: P
authors.initials: P
authors.lastname: Royer
authors.forename: O
authors.initials: O
authors.lastname: Soppera