Plasmonic heptamer-arranged nanoholes in a gold film on the end-facet of a photonic crystal fiber.

We use the end-facet of a solid-core polarization-maintaining photonic crystal fiber (PM-PCF) as a platform on which to fabricate resonant plasmonic nanostructures. Solid-core PM-PCFs can be excited in a polarization-aligned single mode by supercontinuum light, so they are well-suited to the wavelength-interrogation of resonant plasmonic nanostructures, especially supporting complex spectra over a broad spectral range. The nanostructures implemented consist of an array of heptamer-arranged nanoholes formed in a thin Au film.

Fano resonances in plasmonic heptamer nano-hole arrays.

The optical properties of gold heptamer nanohole arrays have been investigated theoretically and numerically. This structure support pronounced Fano resonances with high transmittance (~50%) and narrow bandwidths (down to 12 nm). The Fano features arise from the interference between light directly transmitted through the holes, and light indirectly scattered through the excitation of localized surface plasmon polaritons (LSPPs), propagating surface plasmon polaritons (SPPs), or/and waves related to Wood's anomaly (WA).

Ordered gold nanoparticle arrays on glass and their characterization.

Using self-assembly of block copolymer micelle loaded metal precursors, combined with a seeding growth route, we have developed a novel approach to create ordered metal nanoparticle (NP) arrays of controllable size over large areas (~80 mm(2)) on solid substrates. Atomic force microscopy (AFM), UV-Vis extinction spectrophotometry, and theoretical simulations were systematically carried out to determine the size and pattern of NP arrays, and locate the localized surface plasmon resonance (LSPR) peak. By tuning the molar ratios of precursors, hexagonal arrays of AuNPs of mean heights of 5.