Comparison of Octahedral and Spherical Nanoparticles for Plasmonics

Monocrystalline metallic nanoparticles are preferable for plasmonic applications, but grow only in polyhedral shapes, which deviate from the predominantly employed spherical shape. Through numerical simulations we have investigated possibilities for using octahedral instead of spherical Au nanoparticles in plasmonics. Our results show that the dimers of octahedral Au nanoparticles can provide higher field enhancement compared to spherical nanoparticles and that placing the octahedrons close to a metal plate can also have certain advantages compared to spheres.