Blueshift and narrowing of localized surface plasmon resonance of silver nanoparticles exposed to plasma

Kawaguchi, Kazuhiro; Saito, Masahiro*; Takahiro, Katsumi*; Yamamoto, Shunya; Yoshikawa, Masahito

Plasmonics, 6(3), p.535 - 539, 2011/09

https://doi.org/10.1007/s11468-011-9233-4

Silver nanoparticles (Ag NPs) have optical absorption bands due to localized surface plasmon resonance (LSPR) in visible range. The LSPR of Ag-NPs is being used for optical gas sensors. However, there have been differences in LSPR absorption band between most of the experimental data and calculations. We have demonstrated that plasma treatments for Ag NPs to clear the effect of contamination on surface of Ag NPs for LSPR absorption band. The results show that Ar plasma treatments to Ag NPs bring blue-shift and narrowing in their LSPR absorption band. Raman scattering analysis result that hydrocarbons adsorbed on silver surfaces were removed effectively by plasma exposure. It was found that the decrease in Raman line intensity for hydrocarbons was correlated well with the blue-shift. Our findings indicate that one of the most important factors for difference in LSPR absorption band between the experimental data and calculations is due to the impurity adsorption on silver surfaces.