Plasmonic Particles with Unique Optical Interaction and Mechanical Motion Properties

Metal nanoparticles have unique localized surface plasmon resonance (SPR) properties due to the strong interaction of localized surface plasmon polariton (SPP) with incident light. This review will cover some of our recent theoretical and experimental studies on exploring the unique optical interaction and mechanical motion properties of plasmonic particles that originate from SPR enhanced light-matter interaction. Firstly, the efficient enhancement of both the fluorescence excitation and emission process of dye molecules by the double SPR modes (longitudinal and transverse modes) in gold nanorods, and surface plasmon amplification in metal nanoparticles with gain is discussed. Secondly, it is theoretically demonstrated that two basic physical processes of molecules interacting with light, i.e., the elastic Rayleigh scattering and inelastic Raman scattering, will strongly intertwine and correlate with each other in many plasmonic surface-enhanced Raman scattering (SERS) and tip-enhanced Raman scattering (TERS) nanosystems. Thirdly, it is experimentally shown that SPR can enhance the optical force and torque of nanoparticles embedded within non-intrusive optical tweezers. The work presented in this review shows that plasmonic particles can possess unique optical interaction and mechanical motion properties when their geometries are deliberately controlled.