Synthesis and Fabrication of Plasmon Resonance-Tuned Silver Nanoparticle Films

Abstract

This thesis presents a series of optimisation experiments aimed at synthesising and fabricating plasmon resonance-tuned silver nanoparticle films. The initial focus of this work is to refine a wet chemical synthetic method that produces reproducible nanoparticle suspensions with tunable plasmonic properties. By effectively varying the synthetic reagents, we were able to control the size and shape of the resulting nanostructures, thereby tuning the surface plasmon resonance of these suspensions. The insights gained from the synthesis optimisation experiments were crucial for developing an efficient immobilisation process to attach these nanoparticles onto glass substrates. Ultimately, successfully fabricating a monolayer nanoparticle film with tunable plasmon resonance. Subsequently, these films were overlaid with rubrene to explore the impact of the plasmonic sublayer on the steady-state and time-resolved fluorescence in solid-state rubrene films. The findings and optimised protocols detailed in this thesis will serve as a strategic foundation for advancing future work on efficient up-conversion devices.