Substrate Effect on Plasmon Resonance of a Gold Nanoparticle Embedded Amorphous BaTiO₃ Film

Abstract

Two sets of gold nanoparticles (NP) embedded in amorphous BaTiO 3 films were prepared by sol-gel method using spin coating. Sample (1) is having BaTiO 3 sol with 0.025 gm of Chloroauric acid dissolved in 10 ml of propan-2-ol, while sample (2) is having 0.086 gm of Chloroauric acid in the same amount of propan-2-ol. The films have been deposited on various substrates like borosilicate glass and fused silica. TEM images show that the particles are of 5 and 10 nm in size for the two set of samples, and some are having elongated morphology. Optical absorption properties of these films reveal the substrate and size effect on localised surface plasmon resonance (SPR). It shows a marginal red shift in the plasmon resonance peak from 414 nm to 420 nm in the case of sample (1) and 566 nm to 568 nm for sample (2) as the substrate changed from borosilicate glass to fused silica. It also shows red shift in Plasmon peak as the size increases from 5 to 10 nm and coincides with Mie explanation for the shift with size.