Preparation and properties of plasmonic-excitonic nanoparticle assemblies

The assembly of inorganic nanoparticles often leads to collective properties that are different from the combined properties of the individual components. In particular, coupling plasmonic and excitonic nanoparticles has been shown to modify their optical properties, including absorption, emission, and scattering. Because of this, these coupled assemblies have potential applications in a wide range of areas, including sensing, light harvesting, and photocatalysis. More recently, unique properties, including Fano interference and Rabi splitting, have been observed by increasing the coupling strength. However, the behavior of coupled nanoparticles is highly dependent on the exact organization of the components, including the number of particles coupled, the distance separating them, and their spatial orientation. This is especially true in the case of strongly coupled particles. Because of this, it is important to achieve synthetic techniques that not only can link particles together but also offer good control over how the particles are connected. In this review, assemblies of plasmonic and excitonic nanoparticles are reviewed, including the various methods that have been used for their construction, the properties that these systems have been predicted to possess as well as the ones that have been observed, and their current applications along with current challenges in the field and potential future applications.