Stable nanoclusters to impart metamaterial optical properties

A team from Rice University has developed a method to manufacture stable, 3D nanoclusters that could be used to impart metamaterial optical properties into unstructured substrates such as liquids, glasses and plastics.

The team, led by Professors Naomi Halas and Peter Nordlander, chose an Andor iKon-M NIR-enhanced CCD camera coupled to a hyperspectral imaging system to collect the dark-field scattering spectra of individual nanoclusters.

Their results reveal a very strong agreement between the experimental spectral characterisation of 3D nanoclusters with varying configurations (number, geometry, and orientation of the cluster) and the team’s theoretical calculations based on finite element analysis.

In a statement Prof Nordlander said: ‘The precise way in which the nanoparticles are arranged, rather than their composition, dictates the optical characteristics through an effect called localised surface plasmon resonance.

‘Theory suggests that the optical properties of different nanoclusters should be either remarkably sensitive to, or highly independent of, nanoparticle number and cluster geometry and our results bear this out.