Controlling the plasmon resonance wavelength in metal-coated probe using refractive index modification.

We present a novel technique to tune the plasmon resonance of metal-coated silicon tips in the whole visible region without altering the tips original sharpness. The technique involves modification of the refractive index of silicon probe by thermal oxidization. Lowering the refractive index of silicon tip coated with metal shift the PRW of the metallic layer to shorter wavelength. Numerical simulation using FDTD agrees well with the empirical results. This novel technique is very useful in tip-enhanced Raman spectroscopy studies of various materials because plasmon resonance can tuned to a specific Raman excitation wavelength.