Open AccessThree dimensional chiral plasmon rulers based on silver nanorod trimers
Author(s) -
Chunrui Han,
Lechen Yang,
Piao Ye,
Edward P. J. Parrott,
Emma PickwellMacPherson,
Wing Yim Tam
Publication year - 2018
Publication title -
optics express
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 1.394
H-Index - 271
ISSN - 1094-4087
DOI - 10.1364/oe.26.010315
Subject(s) - nanorod , trimer , optical rotation , plasmon , point reflection , degenerate energy levels , optics , translational symmetry , symmetry breaking , circular dichroism , molecular physics , excited state , rod , materials science , physics , nanotechnology , condensed matter physics , crystallography , chemistry , atomic physics , dimer , nuclear magnetic resonance , quantum mechanics , medicine , alternative medicine , pathology
The symmetry dependences of plasmon excitation modes are studied in 3D silver nanorod trimers. The degenerate plasmon modes split into chiral modes by breaking the inversion and mirror symmetry of the nanorod trimer through translation and/or rotation of the middle rod. With a translation operation, successive evolution of the circular dichroism (CD) spectrum can be achieved through gradual breaking of the inversion symmetry. An additional rotation operation produces even dramatic spectral changes due to breaking a quasi-mirror symmetry resulted from the same angular distance of the middle rod to the top and bottom rods. Especially, pairs of new chiral modes can be excited due to the contact of the middle rod with the top-bottom rod pair. The spectral changes in the simulations, which are also demonstrated experimentally, envision the 3D chiral nanorod trimer system as plasmon ruler for spatial configuration retrieval and dynamic bio-process analysis at the single molecule level.