Confronting theoretical results of localized and additional surface plasmon resonances in silver nanoparticles with electron energy-loss spectroscopy measurements

Article

关键词: DENSITY-FUNCTIONAL THEORY;    OPTICAL-PROPERTIES;    SIZE-DEPENDENCE;    AG-CLUSTERS;    GOLD;    RESOLUTION;    EVOLUTION;    SHIFT;    SHAPE;   

DOI  :  10.1103/PhysRevB.103.195417

来源: SCIE

【 摘 要 】

Raza et al. recently observed the extraordinarily large energy blueshifts of localized surface plasmon resonances and additional surface plasmon resonances in silver nanoparticles encapsulated in silicon nitride [S. Raza, S. Kadkhodazadeh, T. Christensen, M. D. Vece, M. Wubs, N. A. Mortensen, and N. Stenger, Nat. Commun. 6, 8788 (2015)], which are not fully understood yet. By using the quantum model consisting of two subsystems, respectively, for describing the center of mass and intrinsic motions of conduction electrons of a metallic nanosphere and a coupling occurring between the center of mass and conduction electrons outside the metallic nanosphere, we first deduced the general energy and line broadening size dependence of localized surface plasmon resonances, which removes the divergent defect of usual 1/R size dependence. Second, we proposed that the additional surface plasmon resonance in a metallic nanosphere originates from the transition of the first excited state to the ground state of the center-of-mass subsystem with energy levels corrected by degenerate-state pairs of the system composed of the center of mass and intrinsic motions of conduction electrons. Then, we implemented this generation mechanism of additional surface plasmon resonances for silver nanoparticles encapsulated in silicon nitride, and the calculated results are consistent with experimental results. Furthermore, we obtained an energy expression of localized surface plasmon resonances, with which we successfully explained the extraordinarily large energy blueshifts of localized surface plasmon resonances in few-nanometer silver nanoparticles encapsulated in silicon nitride. Finally, we calculated the localized and additional surface plasmon resonance energies of silver nanoparticles resting on carbon films, and the calculated results perfectly explain the experimental measurements of Scholl et al. [J. A. Scholl, A. L. Koh, and J. A. Dionne, Nature (London) 483, 421 (2012)]. Within this quantum model, the optical properties of metallic nanoparticles are completely determined by degenerate-state or nearly degenerate-state pairs of the system composed of the center-of-mass and intrinsic motions of conduction electrons. Our calculations also show that additional surface plasmon resonances play almost an equal role as localized surface plasmon resonances for metallic nanoparticles excited by fast-moving electrons.

【 授权许可】

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