Rayleigh scattering microspectrosopy of individual nanoparticles

This paper is concerned with Rayleigh scattering spectroscopy using a dark-field optical microscope for the purpose of studying optical and electronic properties of isolated single nanoparticles. Size dependent optical resonance of organic nanocrystals was demonstrated using an optical microscope setup coupled with AFM. The adsorption effects of molecules on the surface plasmon resonance spectra of individual gold nanoparticles were examined in detail and the potential application of the single-nanoparticle SPR to chemical and biological sensors is discussed.