An ultrathin (few nanometer) polymer spacer layer is softened by local optical heating and restructured by strong capillary forces, which increase the gap between the plasmonic metal components. This results in a continuous blue-shift of the coupled plasmon from near infrared to visible with a tuning range of >150 nm that can be tightly controlled by adjusting either irradiation time or power.
Keywords: gold; nanogaps; plasmon resonance; polymer spacer layers; spectra.
© 2015 The Authors. Published by WILEY-VCH Verlag GmbH & Co. KGaA, Weinheim.