Far-Field Raman Imaging of Short-Wavelength Particle Plasmons on Gold Nanorods

Abstract

The surface plasmon fields of gold nanorods with a diameter of 100 nm and lengths of 1–5 \(\mu\)m are imaged by using far-field Raman scattering of methylene blue adsorbed on the rods. When optically exciting the nanorods under total internal reflection with wave vector and electric field vector orientations along the rod axis, the plasmon field intensity along this axis is observed to be periodically modulated. This modulation is attributable to a beating of the exciting light wave and the nanorod plasmon mode. The plasmon wavelength deduced from the beat frequency is 379 nm, which is considerably smaller than the exciting laser wavelength of 647 nm. In general, Raman imaging is shown to be a powerful technique to probe local plasmon fields using far-field spectroscopy.