The plasmonics of a nanosphere on a mirror substrate

This is vital in the implementation of NPoM in strong coupling between plasmons in the nanoparticle and excitons in carbon molecules inside the gap created by using single layer graphene as a spacing layer. This thesis demonstrates that optical spectroscopy is an effective method for characterising single layers of graphene. This is confirmed by comparing the experimental results to a theoretical method, which takes into account contributions from a wide range of incident angles and both TE and TM polarisations.<br><br>It is also shown that coupling strength can be collectively tuned within the visible spectrum using a low-powered incident laser.

This works by photobleaching carbon molecules in the gap (grown under the influence of the intense gap mode in the NPoM) and reducing its oscillating strength. This is confirmed both experimentally and theoretically, and may help with the development of new optoelectronic and molecular devices.