Toward laser-induced tuning of plasmonic response in high aspect ratio gold nanostructures

High aspect-ratio gold nanostructures sustain Fabry–Perot-like surface plasmon responses from infrared to visible light energies. We show that some resonances can be tuned by means of laser irradiation, where low energy modes stay unperturbed. After laser irradiation, gold nanowires’ tips are transformed into nanoparticles of various sizes joint to gold nanowires, producing high aspect-ratio half-dumbbells and dumbbells structures. The plasmonic behaviour of both the nanowires and the newly created nanostructures has been characterised by in-depth monochromated electron energy loss spectroscopy (EELS) developed in a transmission electron microscope (TEM) and state-of-the-art discrete dipole approximation (DDA) calculations. All these analyses serve as experimental proof of the selective tuning (or robustness) of the plasmonic modes of the nanostructures in a specific spectral range, which is of critical interest regarding applications for sensing devices, nano-sources or nanophotonic waveguide, as well as optical remote control.