We developed a template guided self-assembly approach for integrating metallic and dielectric nanoparticles into metallo-dielectric hybrid materials with defined lattices, which provides new opportunities for the manipulation of light-matter interactions. Arrays comprising nanoparticles of different composition represents an alternative strategy for hybrid materials with new electromagnetic properties that reach beyond those of the individual building blocks. However, the fabrication of this hybrid material is challenging due to difficulties associated with the selective positioning of multiple building blocks at pre-defined lattice We demonstrate that template guided self-assembly strategies provide a viable approach to 2-dimensional hetero-nanoparticle arrays with complex morphology. We create two types of hybrid structures through a template-guided self assembly strategy, which facilitates the anchoring of TiO2 nanoparticles and Au nanoparticle clusters at pre-defined lattice sites. In one geometry individual TiO2 nanoparticles are immobilized on top of a pre-assembled Au nanoparticle cluster; in the other geometry TiO2 nanoparticles and Au nanoparticle clusters are localized in orthogonal lattice sites. The characterization of these materials through elastic and inelastic scattering spectroscopy revealed that the discrete Au nanoparticle cluster - TiO2 nanoparticle structures result in an efficient focusing of the incident light into the metallic nanocluster. In the hetero-nanoparticle arrays the incident light can excite delocalized surface modes that interact with the plasmonic clusters in the array, which results in a cascaded near-field enhancement. Both investigated structures show a near-field redistribution that leads to an enhancement of electric field intensity not only the in the metal nanoparticle clusters but also in the surrounding ambient medium.

Self-assembled metallic-dielectric hybrid 2D nano arrays

248th National Meeting (2014)

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