Controlled texturing modifies the surface topography and plasmonic properties of Au nanoshells.

We report a facile and controllable method for the postfabrication texturing of the surface topography of Au nanoshells based on site-selective chemical etching of the polycrystalline Au nanoshell surface by a bifunctional alkanethiol molecule, cysteamine. This nanoscale surface texturing process systematically introduces dramatic changes to the plasmonic properties of the Au nanoshells. The modification of the plasmon resonant properties of nanoshells as a function of increased surface roughness was examined experimentally and modeled theoretically using three-dimensional finite difference time domain (FDTD) simulations.