Dielectric medium effects on collective surface plasmon coupling interactions in oligothiophene-linked gold nanoparticles

The near-field coupling interactions between surface plasmon modes of neighboring metal nanoparticles (NPs) are examined in thin films of oligothiphene-linked Au NPs. The surface plasmon resonance (SPR) coupling between NPs is found to be highly dependent on the dielectric constant of the medium that the films are exposed to, where a higher dielectric medium leads to weaker coupling.