Enhancing absorption properties of composite nanosphere and nanowire arrays by localized surface plasmon resonance shift

Nanoparticles with nonmetallic core and metallic shell can improve the spectral solar absorption efficiency for traditional working fluids, due to the localized surface plasmon resonance (LSPR) effect exists at the surfaces of these core-shell composite nanoparticles. In this work, the effect of geometry and material, and hence the LSPR effect, on the optical absorption properties of core-shell nanostructures was numerically demonstrated by the finite difference time domain method. The nanostructures were formed by varying the inner and outer radii of the composite nanospheres and nanowires and by changing the particle spacing for their arrays. The result indicates that varying the inner radius itself can tune the absorption efficiency factors of the nanostructures monotonously, while an optimal outer radius may exist for maximizing the absorption efficiency factors. It also shows that varying the inner radius itself can widen the absorption spectrums for the arrays, but the absorptance tends to increase with decreasing inner radius or particle spacing. Meanwhile, the second absorption peaks may be observed for nanowires or nanosphere/nanowire arrays, which can be tuned by the resonance shifts induced by the change of either inner or outer radius and hence the LSPR effect. The coupled LSPR effect under studied can be efficiently utilized for tuning the optical absorption properties of nanoparticles used in many applications including photothermal conversion, and perspective also exists for many other applications including surface-enhanced Raman spectroscopy (SERS) enhancement.