Significant Nonlinear Optical Properties by Electromagnetic Enhancement in Boat-Shaped Gold Nanostructures with Adjustable Nanogap
摘要
The plasmon-enhanced spectroscopy of noble metal nanocrystals can be flexibly manipulated by adjusting their structure, which is crucial for their extensive applications. Herein, we use a hydrothermal method to synthesize boat-shaped gold nanostructures (AuNBs) with adjustable nanoscale gaps and explore the surface-enhanced Raman scattering (SERS) activity and the second harmonic generation (SHG). The width of the gaps and the degree of outer gold shell encapsulation can be adjusted by modulating the amounts of Pb(Ac)2 and HAuCl4. The nanoscale gaps within the AuNBs facilitates strong plasmonic coupling between the outer gold shell and the embedded gold nanorods (AuNRs), significantly enhancing the near-field intensity and optical absorption capacity of the AuNBs. AuNBs exhibit significantly enhanced SERS activity and SHG intensity compared to AuNRs, due to near-field enhancement and structural asymmetry. The exceptional performance of AuNBs in terms of SERS and SHG show great potential in pollutant detection and nonlinear optics.