Tunable plasmon coupling in distance-controlled gold nanoparticles.

Plasmons are resonant excitations in metallic films and nanoparticles. For small enough static distances of metal nanoparticles, additional plasmon-coupled modes appear as a collective excitation between the nanoparticles. Here we show, by combining poly(N-isopropylacrylamide) micro- and nanospheres and Au nanoparticles, how to design a system that allows controllably and reversibly switching on and off, and tuning the plasmon-coupled mode.