Modern nanotechnology opens the possibility of combining nanocrystals of
various materials with very different characteristics in one superstructure.
The resultant superstructure may provide new physical properties not
encountered in homogeneous systems. Here we study theoretically the optical
properties of hybrid molecules composed of semiconductor and metal
nanoparticles. Excitons and plasmons in such a hybrid molecule become strongly
coupled and demonstrate novel properties. At low incident light intensity, the
exciton peak in the absorption spectrum is broadened and shifted due to
incoherent and coherent interactions between metal and semiconductor
nanoparticles. At high light intensity, the absorption spectrum demonstrates a
surprising, strongly asymmetric shape. This shape originates from the coherent
inter-nanoparticle Coulomb interaction and can be viewed as a non-linear Fano
effect which is quite different from the usual linear Fano resonance.Comment: 5 pages, 5 figures, submitted to Phys. Rev. Let