Development of silicon nanoparticles for plasmonic sensing

The performances of a porous silicon nanorods / gold nanoparticle combination for high sensitivity plasmonic sensing was assessed. First, an innovative synthesis technique was developed in a view to obtain porous silicon particles (nanorods due to their elongated shape) with homogeneous size and shape. The porous silicon nanorods were then spin coated on a glass substrate covered with gold nanoparticles. The combination of the high specific surface area porous silicon nanorods and the plasmonic effect of the Au nanoparticles was tested to form a highly sensitive ellipsometric sensing device. The porous silicon nanorods could be attached to both the plane Au surface and the Au nanoparticles with a specific spectral shift in the reflected polarized light.