A laser primarily consists of a cavity and a gain material that emits monochromatic, coherent light; however, the size of the laser is constrained by the diffraction limit. By using a metal nanoparticle as the cavity and a conjugated polymer material as the gain medium, a sub-wavelength analogue of a laser could be created that produces surface plasmons instead of photons. Here, we will present a procedure for coating gold nanorods that support surface plasmon resonances, in a conjugated polymer through miniemulsion synthesis.To create the polymer nanoparticles, a conjugated polymer (F8BT) is dissolved in dichloromethane and the solution is then added drop-wise to a solution of water and polyethylene glycol. After stirring and sonication, the solution is drop-deposited on silicon substrates. From bright- and dark-field optical images and scanning electron microscope images, it has been determined that F8BT nanoparticles were present, with diameters between 150 and 600 nm.

Plasmonic nanoparticles with high-gain conjugated polymer coatings for nanolaser applications

245th National Meeting (2013)

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