Optical Properties of Plasmonic Mirror-Image Nanoepsilon

Abstract

We propose a novel mirror-image nanoepsilon (MINE) structure to achieve highly localized and enhanced near field at its gap and systematically investigate its plasmonic behaviors. The MINE can be regarded as a combination of two fundamental plasmonic nanostructures: a nanorod dimer and nanoring. By adapting a nanoring surrounding a nanorod dimer structure, the nanorod is regarded as a bridge pulling the charges from the nanoring to the nanorod, which induces stronger plasmon coupling in the gap to boost local near-field enhancement. Two resonance peaks are identified as the symmetric and anti-symmetric modes according to the symmetries of the charge distributions on the ring and rod dimer in the MINE. The symmetric mode in the MINE structure is preferred because its charge distribution leads to stronger near-field enhancement with a concentrated distribution around the gap. In addition, we investigate the influence of geometry on the optical properties of MINE structures by performing experiments and simulations. These results indicate that the MINE possesses highly tunable optical properties and that significant near-field enhancement at the gap region and rod tips can be realized by the gap and lightning-rod effects. The results improve understanding of such complex systems, and it is expected to guide and facilitate the design of optimum MINE structures for various plasmonic applications.