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Frontiers of Plasmonics: enabling new applications
Last modified: 2012-01-31
Abstract
Metallic nanoparticles have recently become a central tool in the nanoscale manipulation of light. This interest has led to a virtual explosion of new types of metal-based nanoparticles and nanostructures of various shapes and compositions, and has given rise to new strategies to harvest, control, and manipulate light based on these structures and their properties. As one begins to assemble metallic nanoparticles into useful building blocks, a striking parallel between the plasmons of these structures and wave functions of simple quantum systems is universally observed. Clusters of metallic nanoparticles support coherent phenomena, introducing new ways to engineer electromagnetic lineshapes. From these new paradigms emerge applications that can benefit society, in areas ranging from biomedicine to solar energy.