Department of Chemistry, Rice University, Houston, Texas 77005, United States.
Nano Lett. 2011 Sep 14;11(9):3797-802. doi: 10.1021/nl201876r. Epub 2011 Aug 26.
Confining visible light to nanoscale dimensions has become possible with surface plasmons. Many plasmonic elements have already been realized. Nanorods, for example, function as efficient optical antennas. However, active control of the plasmonic response remains a roadblock for building optical analogues of electronic circuits. We present a new approach to modulate the polarized scattering intensities of individual gold nanorods by 100% using liquid crystals with applied voltages as low as 4 V. This novel effect is based on the transition from a homogeneous to a twisted nematic phase of the liquid crystal covering the nanorods. With our method it will be possible to actively control optical antennas as well as other plasmonic elements.
利用表面等离激元，将可见光限制在纳米尺度范围内成为可能。许多等离激元元件已经被实现。例如，纳米棒作为高效的光学天线。然而，对等离子体响应的主动控制仍然是构建光电子电路类似物的障碍。我们提出了一种新的方法，通过使用施加电压低至 4 V 的液晶，将单个金纳米棒的偏振散射强度调制 100%。这种新的效应基于覆盖纳米棒的液晶从各向同性相到扭曲向列相的转变。通过我们的方法，将有可能主动控制光学天线以及其他等离激元元件。
