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The occurrence of plasmon resonances in thin (~20 nm) Al and Au films, perforated with nanoholes, was studied. In both metals, two plasmon resonances were observed: (i) A surface plasmon polariton mode associated with a maximum in extinction and (ii) a localized resonance in the nanohole associated with a minimum in extinction. By varying the diameter of the nanoholes, the scaling of the peak positions of the plasmon resonances was determined as a function of hole diameter. In the large nanohole limit, the plasmon peak positions depend only on the nanohole diameter being independent of the material. On the other hand, for small nanoholes the plasmon peak positions are material and size dependent. In contrast to Al films where the localized plasmons can be excited from the near-IR to the UV, no plasmon resonances were observed for Au at energies above the interband threshold (2.4 eV). The interaction between a distinct interband transition in Al at 1.5 eV and the localized plasmon resonance is considered in detail. We observe for the first time experimentally a noncrossing behavior of the interband transition and the localized plasmon resonance. The energy (size) dependence of surface plasmon peak width, being a measure for the decay/damping of the latter, is very different for the two metals. This can be explained by considering the different decay mechanisms active in the two metals. Apart from these basic plasmonics results, we test the potential of using the shifts of the plasmon resonances in perforated Al films to follow the atmospheric oxidation/corrosion kinetics of Al. The results are quantified by model calculations. The obtained kinetic law for the oxide growth is in good agreement with a previous XPS study on plain Al films. This suggests that the nanohole-induced plasmon resonances can be a sensitive and simple measure for Al corrosion and metal corrosion in general.

We have measured the angular distribution of light scattered off 2D plasmonic Al nanoparticle ensembles. We created these samples with disk-like nanoparticles, 175 and 500 nm in diameter, respectively, using hole-mask colloidal lithography and electron beam lithography. The nanoparticle arrangements in the samples display the short-range order (but no long-range order) characteristic for an ensemble formed by random sequential adsorption. As a consequence of this, the ensemble scattering patterns can be quantitatively well described by combining the single-particle scattering pattern with a static structure factor that carries information about the diffraction effects caused by the short-range order of the ensemble. We also performed sensing experiments in which we monitored changes in the angle-resolved scattering intensity for a fixed wavelength as a function of the thickness of an ultrathin SiO(2) coating covering the Al nanoparticles. The data show that the angle and strength of the main diffraction peak vary linearly with SiO(2) coating thickness in the range 1.5-4.5 nm and suggest that measurements of the scattering profile could be a competitive alternative to traditional transmission measurements in terms of sensitivity.

Using the localized surface plasmon resonance as a probe in solid and liquid Sn nanoparticles of 107 nm diameter and 52 nm height, we have studied their kinetics of melting and freezing at temperature ramps and, for the first time, at fixed temperatures. During temperature ramps, the kinetics exhibit distinct hysteresis. The melting occurs near the bulk melting point while the freezing is observed at much lower temperatures so that the undercooling interval is approximately 130 K. The time scale of the freezing kinetics measured at different fixed temperatures rapidly decreases as the latter are lowered. All these findings have been quantitatively described by assuming the nucleation to occur on the edges of nanoparticles and employing the classical nucleation theory with the corresponding modifications.

The plasmonic properties of arrays of supported Al nanodisks, fabricated by hole-mask colloidal lithography (HCL), are analyzed for the disk diameter range 61-492 nm at a constant disk height of 20 nm. Strong and well-defined (UV-vis-NIR) localized surface plasmon resonances are found and experimentally characterized with respect to spectral peak positions, peak widths, total cross sections, and radiative and nonradiative decay channels. Theoretically, the plasmon excitations are described by electrostatic spheroid theory. Very good qualitative and quantitative agreement between model and experiment is found for all these observables by assuming a nanoparticle embedded in a few nanometer thick homogeneous (native) aluminum oxide shell. Other addressed aspects are: (i) the role of the strong interband transition in Al metal, located at 1.5 eV, for the plasmonic excitations of Al nanoparticles, (ii) the role of the native oxide layer, and (iii) the possibility of using the plasmon excitation as an ultrasensitive, remote, real-time probe for studies of oxidation/corrosion kinetics in metal nanoparticle systems.

A novel nanoplasmonic sensing scheme is introduced based on remote real-time detection of induced electronic and shape/structural changes in a metal nanoparticle during the metal-hydride formation process. The localized surface plasmon resonance (LSPR) of the nanoparticle is utilized as signal transducer for optical readout. As a model system, hydrogen storage through metal-hydride formation is studied in Pd nanodisks. The experimentally obtained plasmonic response to hydrogen uptake yields pressure-LSPR-response isotherms. These isotherms are found to obey Sievert's law in the low-pressure range and exhibit a characteristic "plateau" at 18 Torr upon hydrogen charging and 7.5 Torr upon hydrogen discharging. An additional experiment also clearly shows the typical temperature dependence of the plateau pressure. Conversion of the LSPR signal to absolute hydrogen concentration, based on a proposed linear dependence of the LSPR response to hydrogen uptake, results in p-C isotherms in excellent agreement with those in the literature. This puts forward that the LSPR response is an extremely sensitive, remote, and real-time probe for "bulk" changes in a metal nanoparticle and can readily be used to study processes such as metal-hydride formation for hydrogen storage applications, alloying on the nanoscale, thermal reshaping, and so forth.

The plasmonic properties of nanodisk arrays of Pt, Pd, and, for comparison, Ag are studied over a large size and spectral range and analyzed theoretically by an electrostatic model. Pt and Pd nanodisks exhibit broad localized surface plasmons with a higher sensitivity of the plasmon to the disk aspect ratio compared to Ag. Extinction cross-sections are generally about 50% smaller for Pt and Pd. The spectral plasmon positions, line-widths, and extinction cross-sections are well reproduced by the model.