title: Linear dichroism and optical anisotropy of silver nanoprisms in polymer films.
abstract: We present optical studies of two different size distributions of silver triangular nanoprisms, one with a dipole resonance at 520 nm and the other with a dipole resonance at 650 nm, placed in different media. Significant wavelength-dependent depolarization of scattered light from the silver nanoprisms suspended in water indicates strong interference of multiple surface plasmon resonant modes in the same particle. We use this depolarization as a probe of light scattering by the nanoprisms in a lipid solution due to the rejection of a polarized background scattering. Also, the silver nanoprisms were embedded in a polyvinyl alcohol polymer matrix and oriented by stretching the polymer/nanoprism nanocomposite films. We observe significantly increased linear dichroism in the region associated with the plasmonic in-plane dipole mode upon stretching. Additionally, there is a weaker linear dichroism in the region associated with out-of-plane modes, which vanish in the extinction spectrum of the stretched nanocomposite film.
authors.affiliation: Department of Physics & Astronomy, Texas Christian University, TCU Sid Richardson Building, TCU Box 298840, Fort Worth, TX 76129, USA.
authors.forename: S
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Requena
authors.forename: H
authors.initials: H
authors.lastname: Doan
authors.forename: S
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Raut
authors.forename: A
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: D'Achille
authors.forename: Z
authors.initials: Z
authors.lastname: Gryczynski
authors.forename: I
authors.initials: I
authors.lastname: Gryczynski
authors.forename: Y M
authors.initials: YM
authors.lastname: Strzhemechny