High Tunability of Size Dependent Optical Properties of ZnO@M@Au (M = SiO2, In2O3, TiO2) Core/Spacer/Shell Nanostructure

This theoretical work presents a comparative study of high tunability size dependent optical properties of quantum dot/wire triple layered core shell nanostructure based on the quasi-static approximation of classical electrodynamics embedded in a fixed dielectrics function of host matrix. In this paper, local field enhancement factor (LFEF), refractive index and optical absorbance of nanocomposite are analyzed by varying core size, thickness of spacer and shell as well as dielectrics function of the spacer for the size of the nanocomposite with the range of 20 nm to 40 nm. For both quantum dot and quantum wire triple layered core shell nanostructure (CSNS), there are two resonances in visible and near/in infrared spectral region with high tunability. When the shell thickness increase and therefore increasing the gold content, the surface plasmon resonance (SPR) at the outer interface shifts to higher energy (blue-shifted) and at the inner interface weak peaks and shifted to lower energy (red-shifted). All of three optical properties, depend on core size, dielectrics and thickess of spacer, thickness of shell, shape of composite and filling factor. For the same thickness of spacer and shell of the two configurations, cylindrical triple layered CSNS less pronounced and shifted to infrared red (IR) spectral region which is recommendable for biological and photocatalysis application.