Photonic–Plasmonic Mode Coupling in On-Chip Integrated Optoplasmonic Molecules

We investigate photonic–plasmonic mode coupling in a new class of optoplasmonic materials that comprise dielectric microspheres and noble metal nanostructures in a morphologically well-defined on-chip platform. Discrete networks of optoplasmonic elements, referred to as optoplasmonic molecules, were generated through a combination of top-down fabrication and template-guided self-assembly. This approach facilitated a precise and controllable vertical and horizontal positioning of the plasmonic elements relative to the whispering gallery mode (WGM) microspheres. The plasmonic nanostructures were positioned in or close to the equatorial plane of the dielectric microspheres where the fields associated with the plasmonic modes can synergistically interact with the evanescent fields of the WGMs. We characterized the far-field scattering spectra of discrete optoplasmonic molecules that comprised two coupled 2.048 μm diameter polystyrene microspheres each encircled by four 148 nm diameter Au nanoparticles (NPs), through far-field scattering spectroscopy. We observed a broadening of the TE and TM modes in the scattering spectra of the optoplasmonic dimers indicative of an efficient photonic–plasmonic mode coupling between the coupled photonic modes of the WGM resonators and the localized surface plasmon modes of the NPs. Our experimental findings are supported by generalized multiple particle Mie theory simulations, which provide additional information about the spatial distributions of the near fields associated with the photonic–plasmonic hybrid modes in the investigated optoplasmonic molecules. The simulations reveal partial localization of the spectrally sharp hybrid modes outside of the WGM microspheres on the Au NPs where the local E-field intensity is enhanced by approximately 2 orders of magnitude over that of an individual Au NP