Double Plasmon Resonance Nanostructured Silver Coatings with Tunable Properties

Abstract

Plasmonic materials that exhibit dual or multiple localised surface plasmon resonances (LSPRs) due to their high application potential in biosensing and biodetection are gaining increasing attention. Here, we report on the novel strategy suitable for the production of silver nanostructured dual-LSPR coatings. This fully vacuum-based technique uses a magnetron sputtering of Ag and a gas aggregation source of silver nanoparticles. It is shown that when combined, produced Ag nano-islands and nanoparticles exhibit due to their different sizes and shapes two independent LSPRs in the visible part of spectra. Furthermore, the intensities and positions of individual LSPR may be precisely controlled by the amount of sputter-deposited nano-islands and a number of Ag nanoparticles, which opens new possibilities for the tailor-made production of novel platforms for surface-enhanced spectroscopic biodetection.