Fabrication and infrared-transmission properties of monolayer hexagonal-close-packed metallic nanoshells

This paper presents a novel method for fabricating a monolayer of hexagonal-close-packed metallic nanoshells with a small opening, based on a combination of a porous polymer template and a nanocrystal-seeded electroless plating technique. Light transmission spectra of the metallic nanoshell arrays are measured, which show that light can transmit through the dense particle assemblies via excitations of a variety of surface-plasmons (SPs). Further numerical simulations confirm these transmission resonances and reveal that they are attributed to the excitations of localized quadrupolar spherelike and Fano-type hybridized SP modes supported by the specific structure. The present metallic microstructure could find applications in plasmonics.