Nanoscale Drawbridges Open Path to Color Displays

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Together, the team confirmed the composition and spacing of the dimers and showed how metal drawbridges could be used to induce large color shifts based on voltage inputs.

Nordlander and Hui Zhang, the two theorists in the group, examined the device's "plasmonic coupling," the interacting dance that plasmons engage in when they are in close contact. For instance, plasmonic dimers are known to act as light-activated capacitors, and prior research has shown that connecting dimers with nanowire bridges brings about a new state of resonance known as a "charge-transfer plasmon," which has its own distinct optical signature.

"The electrochemical bridging of the interparticle gap enables a fully reversible transition between two plasmonic coupling regimes, one capacitive and the other conductive," Nordlander said. "The shift between these regimes is evident from the dynamic evolution of the charge transfer plasmon."

Halas said the method provides plasmonic researchers with a valuable tool for precisely controlling the gaps between dimers and other multiparticle plasmonic configurations.

"In an applied sense, gap control is important for the development of active plasmonic devices like switches and modulators, but it is also an important tool for basic scientists who are conducting curiosity-driven research in the emerging field of quantum plasmonics."

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