title: Plasmonic/Nonlinear Optical Material Core/Shell Nanorods as Nanoscale Plasmon Modulators and Optical Voltage Sensors.
abstract: Herein, we report the design and synthesis of plasmonic/non-linear optical (NLO) material core/shell nanostructures that can allow dynamic manipulation of light signals using an external electrical field and enable a new generation of nanoscale optical voltage sensors. We show that gold nanorods (Au NRs) can be synthesized with tunable plasmonic properties and function as the nucleation seeds for continued growth of a shell of NLO materials (such as polyaniline, PANI) with variable thickness. The formation of a PANI nanoshell allows dynamic modulation of the dielectric environment of the plasmonic Au NRs, and therefore the plasmonic resonance characteristics, by an external electrical field. The finite element simulation confirms that such modulation is originated from the field-induced modulation of the dielectric constant of the NLO shell. This approach is general, and the coating of the Au NRs with other NLO materials (such as barium titanate, BTO) is found to produce a similar effect. These findings can not only open a new pathway to active modulation of plasmonic resonance at the sub-wavelength scale but also enable the creation of a new generation of nanoscale optical voltage sensors (NOVS).
authors.affiliation: Department of Chemistry and Biochemistry, University of California, Los Angeles, CA 90095 (USA).
authors.forename: Anxiang
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Yin
authors.affiliation: Department of Chemistry and Biochemistry, University of California, Los Angeles, CA 90095 (USA).
authors.forename: Qiyuan
authors.initials: Q
authors.lastname: He
authors.affiliation: Department of Chemistry and Biochemistry, University of California, Los Angeles, CA 90095 (USA).
authors.forename: Zhaoyang
authors.initials: Z
authors.lastname: Lin
authors.affiliation: Department of Chemistry and Biochemistry, University of California, Los Angeles, CA 90095 (USA).
authors.forename: Liang
authors.initials: L
authors.lastname: Luo
authors.affiliation: Department of Materials Science and Engineering, University of California, Los Angeles, CA 90095 (USA).
authors.forename: Yuan
authors.initials: Y
authors.lastname: Liu
authors.affiliation: Department of Materials Science and Engineering, University of California, Los Angeles, CA 90095 (USA).
authors.forename: Sen
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Yang
authors.affiliation: Department of Materials Science and Engineering, University of California, Los Angeles, CA 90095 (USA).
authors.forename: Hao
authors.initials: H
authors.lastname: Wu
authors.affiliation: Department of Materials Science and Engineering, University of California, Los Angeles, CA 90095 (USA).
authors.forename: Mengning
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Ding
authors.affiliation: Department of Materials Science and Engineering, University of California, Los Angeles, CA 90095 (USA).|California Nanosystems Institute, University of California, Los Angeles, CA 90095 (USA).
authors.forename: Yu
authors.initials: Y
authors.lastname: Huang
authors.affiliation: Department of Chemistry and Biochemistry, University of California, Los Angeles, CA 90095 (USA). xduan@chem.ucla.edu.|California Nanosystems Institute, University of California, Los Angeles, CA 90095 (USA). xduan@chem.ucla.edu.
authors.forename: Xiangfeng
authors.initials: X
authors.lastname: Duan
keywords: gold nanorods; nonlinear optical materials; polyanilines; surface plasmon resonance; voltage sensors