Near-Field Studies of Plasmon Wavefunctions and Optical Fields in Gold Nanoparticles

We studied single gold nanoparticles and aggregates by linear and non-linear optical methods combined with near-field optical microscopy. Near-field images of gold nanorods obtained show peculiar spatial patterns, and are strongly dependent on wavelength observed. The images are attributed to spatial characteristics of plasmon modes (wavefunctions), and are consistent with theoretical simulations. We also studied spatial distributions of optical fields by using near-field two-photon-induced photoluminescence and Raman imaging techniques. We revealed that optical fields are highly confined at interstitial sites in dimers of spherical gold nanospheres, and such an amplified electromagnetic field is one of the most important origins in single molecular sensitivity surface enhanced Raman scattering.