CHESTNUT HILL, MA (February 7, 2013) – Using the geometric and
material properties of a unique nanostructure, Boston College
researchers have uncovered a novel photonic effect where surface
plasmons interact with light to form "plasmonic halos" of
selectable output color. The findings appear in the journal Nano
Letters. The novel nanostructure proved capable of manipulating
electron waves known as surface plasmon polaritons, or SPPs,
which were discovered in the 1950s but of late have garnered the
attention of scientists for their potential applications in
fields that include waveguiding, lasing, color filtering and
printing. The team put a layer of a polymer film on a glass
substrate and then dotted the surface with holes precisely
defined by a process of electron beam lithography, using the BC
Integrated Sciences Nanofabrication Clean Room facility. The
team next applied a layer of silver, thick enough to be
nontransparent to visible light. In addition to covering the
thin film on top, the silver coated the