Electrochemical fabrication of hybrid plasmonic-dielectric nanomaterial based on gold-diamond clusters

Hybrid plasmonic-dielectric material were fabricated by micro-discharge through water sols of sub-micrometer-sized diamonds mixed with HAuCl₄ acid. Primary characterization of their deposits on a silicon wafer surface by means of electron microscopy and energy-dispersive x-ray spectroscopy indicate close proximity of gold nanoparticles and diamond particles, which is supported by photoluminescence studies demonstrating strong - almost two-fold - damping of diamond luminescence owing to the attachment of gold nanoparticles. UV-near IR spectroscopy of their sols consistently exhibits small red spectral shifts for the fabricated nanomaterial, comparing to bare gold nanoparticles. (author)