Abstract
We proposed a pancake-shaped nano-aggregate that highly focuses surface plasmons. The structure is a superposition of bowtie-shaped dimers, where surface plasmons are excited, resonated with the structure, and coupled. Surface integral equation method (Poggio-Miller-Chang-Harrington-Wu-Tsai method) is used to predict the performance of the proposed structure. It is a method which can accurately calculate the near-fields of nanoparticles. Based on the numerical prediction, the proposed structure shows an electric field (E-field) enhancement of more than 400 times, which is equivalent to a Raman enhancement factor of more than 2.5e10 times. It is promising for single molecule detections using surface-enhanced Raman scattering. The physics of the proposed structure are revealed. It is useful to design nanostructures for high E-field enhancement. (C) 2012 American Institute of Physics. [doi : 10.1063/1.3681377]