Optical Properties of Gold Nanoparticles: Shape and Size Effects

Nobel metal nanoparticles (NPs) are widely used in various applications including optical and biological sensors, biomedicine, photocatalysts, electronics, and photovoltaic cells. The optical properties of gold NPs are surveyed in this paper under the Localized Surface Plasmon Resonance (LSPR) effect, which increases the light absorption and scattering at the LSPR wavelength. This LSPR frequency depends on various factors, including the shape and size of the particles as well as incident electromagnetic polarization. Here, the optical response of gold NPs with different shapes and sizes are investigated using the finite element method (FEM). The results show that the bandwidth, amplitude, and LSPR wavelength depend on the shape and dimensions of the NPs as well as the polarization of the incident light. The LSPR wavelength changes from 500 to 650 nm for different shapes of the gold NPs including sphere, octahedral, cube, ellipsoid, triangle, and with identical volume. To study the NP size effect on the optical properties, the absorption and scattering cross-sections (CSs) are also investigated for different sizes of NPs. The results show a redshift in the LSPR wavelength by increasing the NP size.