Abstract
Metal nanoparticles have attracted intense attention due to their unique optical and thermal properties in various next generation applications such as micro-nano electronics and photonics. The near-field confinement between closely packed metal nanoparticles, which is enhanced due to their plasmonic behavior, creates high thermal energy densities under visible to near-infrared wavelength laser irradiation. As metal nanoparticles tend to be oxidized or change shape under laser illumination, resulting in nonlinear optical and thermal behavior, surrounding each metal nanoparticle with a dielectric shell could be a potential way to prevent these effects as well as to engineer their plasmonic behavior. In this study, we investigate energy transport within dimer and 4 nanoparticle (chain) configurations of 50 nm radius Au nanoparticles surrounded by dielectric shells under illumination from various laser sources in different dielectric media.
Theoretical study of nanophotonic directional couplers comprising near-field-coupled metal nanoparticles
