Nanoporous Gold Nanoparticles and Au/AlO Hybrid Nanoparticles with Large Tunability of Plasmonic Properties.

Nanoporous gold nanoparticles (NPG-NPs) with controlled particle size and pore size are fabricated via a combination of solid-state dewetting and a subsequent dealloying process. Because of the combined effects of size and porosity, the NPG-NPs exhibit greater plasmonic tunability and significantly higher local field enhancement as compared to solid NPs. The effects of the nanoscale porosity and pore size on the optical extinction are investigated for the NPG-NPs with different particle sizes experimentally and theoretically.

Comparison of photoluminescence quantum yield of single gold nanobipyramids and gold nanorods.

Fluorescent gold nanoparticles with high quantum yield are highly desirable for optical imaging in the fields of biology and materials science. We investigate the one-photon photoluminescence (PL) properties of individual gold nanobipyramids (GNBs) and find they are analogous to those of the extensively studied gold nanorods (GNRs). By combining PL and atomic force microscopy (AFM) measurements with discrete dipole approximation (DDA) simulations, we obtain the PL quantum yield of single GNRs and GNBs.