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Origin of strong and narrow localized surface plasmon resonance of copper nanocubes

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Abstract

Inexpensive copper nanoparticles are generally thought to possess weak and broad localized surface plasmon resonance (LSPR). The present experimental and theoretical studies show that tailoring the Cu nanoparticle to a cubic shape results in a single intense, narrow, and asymmetric LSPR line shape, which is even superior to round-shaped gold nanoparticles. In this study, the dielectric function of copper is decomposed into an interband transition component and a free-electron component. This allows interband transition-induced plasmon damping to be visualized both spectrally and by surface polarization charges. The results reveal that the LSPR of Cu nanocubes originates from the corner mode as it is spectrally separated from the interband transitions. In addition, the interband transitions lead to severe damping of the local electromagnetic field but the cubic corner LSPR mode survives. Cu nanocubes display an extinction coefficient comparable to the dipole mode of a gold nanosphere with the same volume and show a larger local electromagnetic field enhancement. These results will guide development of inexpensive plasmonic copper-based nanomaterials.

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Acknowledgements

This work was supported by NIH (R15NS087515). Use of WVU Shared Research Facilities was acknowledged. We are also grateful to the fruitful discussion with Dr. Alexander Govorov at Ohio University.

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Author notes

  1. Peng Zheng and Haibin Tang contributed equally to this work.

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering, West Virginia University, Morgantown, West Virginia, 26506-6106, USA

    Peng Zheng, Haibin Tang, Botong Liu, Sujan Kasani & Nianqiang Wu

  2. Institute of Advanced Materials, Nanjing Tech University, Nanjing, 211816, China

    Botong Liu & Ling Huang

  3. Lane Department of Computer Science and Electrical Engineering, West Virginia University, Morgantown, West Virginia, 26506, USA

    Sujan Kasani

Authors
  1. Peng Zheng
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  2. Haibin Tang
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  5. Ling Huang
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Correspondence to Ling Huang or Nianqiang Wu.

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Zheng, P., Tang, H., Liu, B. et al. Origin of strong and narrow localized surface plasmon resonance of copper nanocubes. Nano Res. 12, 63–68 (2019). https://doi.org/10.1007/s12274-018-2178-6

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s12274-018-2178-6

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