Optical properties of suspensions of gold half-shells

Suspensions of mesoscale gold half-shells of controlled size were produced by microsphere-templated vapour deposition and their optical properties were studied. The transmission spectra of the particles exhibited an extinction peak that could be tuned from 530 to over 2000 nm by variation of the diameter of the template used. In this respect the optical properties of these reduced-symmetry particles are similar to those of full nanoshells, however they may be more convenient to prepare.