Gold nanosponges: fascinating optical properties of a unique disorder-dominated system

Abstract

Nanoporous gold is a three-dimensional bulk material that is percolated with a random network of nanometer-sized ligaments and made by selective corrosion of bimetallic alloys. It has intriguing geometric, catalytic, and optical properties that have fascinated scientists for many decades. When such a material is made into the form of small, 100-nm-sized particles, so-called nanosponges emerge that offer much flexibility in controlling their geometric, electronic, and optical properties. Importantly, these particles act as an antenna for light that can efficiently localize optical fields on a deep subwavelength scale in certain hotspots at the particle surface. This makes such nanosponges an interesting platform for plasmonic sensing, photocatalysis, and surface-enhanced Raman spectroscopy. Since the optical properties of these nanosponges can be controlled to a large degree by tuning their geometry and/or composition, they have attracted increasing attention in recent years. Here, we provide a concise overview of the current state of the art in this field, covering their fabrication, computational modeling, and specifically the linear and nonlinear optical properties of individual and hybrid nanosponges, for example, plasmon localization in randomly disordered hotspots with a size <10nm and a long lifetime with an exceptionally high Purcell factor. The resulting nonlinear optical and photoemission properties are discussed for individual and hybrid nanosponges. The results presented have strong implications for further applications of such nanosponges in photonics and photocatalysis.