- J J Diao: Department of Physics, George Washington University, Washington, DC 20052, USA.
Metallic nanoparticles bridge the length scale between atoms and crystals, exhibiting mesoscopic properties unique to their size. Thus, they have generated much interest for their potential applications as chemical or biological sensors and particularly as waveguides for light in nanoscale structures. [Y. W. C. Cao, R. C. Jin, and C. A. Mirkin, Science 297, 1536 (2002); H. J. Lezec et al., Science 297, 820 (2002); S. A. Maier, P. G. Kik, and H. A. Atwater, Appl. Phys. Lett. 81, 1714 (2002); J. M. Oliva and S. K. Gray, Chem. Phys. Lett. 379, 325 (2003)]. One important direction of research into the properties of individual metal nanoparticles involves the controlled variation of their geometry, which can yield new and tunable optical properties that simple spherical configurations do not possess. [T. S. Ahmadi, Z. L. Wang, T. C. Green, A. Henglein, and M. A. Ei-Sayed, Science 272, 1924 (1996)]. A prime example of this is the core-shell nanostructure that has a central material surrounded by differing cladding layer.