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Improve the Hole Size–Dependent Refractive Index Sensitivity of Au–Ag Nanocages by Tuning the Alloy Composition

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Abstract

In this study, Au–Ag nanoboxes are converted into Au–Ag alloy nanocages by increasing the hole size. The extinction spectrum and the refractive index sensing characteristics of Au–Ag alloy nanocages with different geometric parameters are studied by using discrete dipole approximation method (DDA). With the increase of Au composition, the peak of local surface plasmon resonance (LSPR) shows approximately linear redshift and the sensitivity factor shows approximately linear decrease. The refractive index sensitivity can be effectively controlled by the Au–Ag ratio at large hole size because the hole and cavity surfaces distribute more environmental dielectric components. Therefore, increasing the hole size and decreasing the Au–Ag ratio can improve the refractive index sensitivity. These calculation results have also been verified experimentally. In order to illustrate the influence of alloy composition on the LSPR characteristics and the refractive index sensitivity, the local electric field distributions under different geometric parameters are plotted. We find that the electric field direction on the hole and cavity surfaces is controlled by the Au–Ag ratio and environmental dielectric constant. Moreover, the field vectors on the hole and cavity surfaces are formed by the superposition of the incident field, the electric field generated by the oscillating electrons on the outer surface, and the polarized field in the environmental dielectric constant.

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Availability of Data and Material

The data that support the findings of this study are available from the corresponding author upon reasonable request.

Code Availability

Custom code data supporting the results of this study are available from the corresponding author upon reasonable request. The software used is DDSCAT.7.3.

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Funding

This work was supported by the National Natural Science Foundation of China under Grant Nos. 11774283 and 61675162. The Zhejiang Province Basic Public Welfare Research Project (LGF20H180017) also supported this research.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. The Key Laboratory of Biomedical Information Engineering of Ministry of Education, School of Life Science and Technology, Xi’an Jiaotong University, Xi’an 710049, People’s Republic of China

    Jian-Jun Li, Qiu-Xiang Qin, Guo-Jun Weng, Jian Zhu & Jun-Wu Zhao

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  1. Jian-Jun Li
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  2. Qiu-Xiang Qin
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  3. Guo-Jun Weng
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  4. Jian Zhu
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  5. Jun-Wu Zhao
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Contributions

Qiu-Xiang Qin: methodology; investigation; data curation; writing—original draft. Jian-Jun Li: formal analysis; writing—review and editing. Jian Zhu: conceptualization; resources; writing—review and editing; supervision; funding acquisition. Guo-Jun Weng: resources; project administration; supervision. Jun-Wu Zhao: conceptualization; resources; writing—review and editing, supervision.

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Correspondence to Jian-Jun Li or Jun-Wu Zhao.

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This is an observational study. The XYZ Research Ethics Committee has confirmed that no ethical approval is required.

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Li, JJ., Qin, QX., Weng, GJ. et al. Improve the Hole Size–Dependent Refractive Index Sensitivity of Au–Ag Nanocages by Tuning the Alloy Composition. Plasmonics 17, 597–612 (2022). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11468-021-01536-0

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