Simple and complex metafluids and metastructures with sharp spectral features in a broad extinction spectrum: particle-particle interactions and testing the limits of the Beer-Lambert law

Abstract

Metallic nanocrystals (NCs) are useful instruments for light manipulation around the visible spectrum. As their plasmonic resonances depend heavily on the NC geometry, modern fabrication techniques afford a great degree of control over their optical responses. We take advantage of this fact to create optical filters in the visible-near IR. Our systems show an extinction spectrum that covers a wide range of wavelengths (UV to mid-IR) while featuring a narrow transparency band around a wavelength of choice. We achieve this by carefully selecting the geometries of a collection of NCs with narrow resonances that cover densely the spectrum from the UV to the mid-IR except for the frequencies targeted for transmission. This fundamental design can be executed in different kinds of systems, including a solution of colloidal metal NCs (metafluids), a structured planar metasurface, or a combination of both. Along with the theory, we report experimental results, showing metasurface realizations of the system, and we discuss the strengths and weaknesses of these different approaches, paying particular attention to particle-particle interaction and to what extent it hinders the intended objective by shifting and modifying the profile of the planned resonances through the hybridization of their plasmonic modes. We found that the Beer-Lambert law is very robust overall and is violated only upon aggregation or in configurations with nearly touching NCs. This striking property favors the creation of metafluids with a narrow transparency window, which are investigated here.