Plasmonics and spectroscopy

Plasmonics and optical spectroscopy conform to a marriage that is here to stay. They both have contributed inter alia to a better understanding of the fundamentals of many techniques that use them in different guises and combinations. Entire fields in their own right depend on their symbiosis. To name a few: surface-enhanced fluorescence (SEF), surface-enhanced Raman scattering (SERS), surface-plasmon resonance (SPR) spectroscopy, tip-enhanced Raman scattering (TERS), etc., are all based on particular fusions of plasmonics and optical spectroscopy. The combinations have also invigorated our need and desire to understand better the processes of light emission, absorption, and scattering, in the presence of metallic/dielectric surfaces at the microscopic (quantum mechanical) level.

The Royal Society of Chemistry (RSC) has shown a permanent support in the last few years to the activities around surface enhanced spectroscopy. This is revealed by the large number of articles across the board that are (and have been) published in its journals; as well as its continuous buttress to the field through special issues and conferences (like the Faraday Discussions Meeting on SERS in 2006). In this context, it was a great pleasure—as part of the International Advisory Board of PCCP—to accept the challenge of editing a special issue in the topic of plasmonics and spectroscopy; to renew one more time this ongoing commitment of the RSC.

As a practitioner of surface-enhanced Raman s (SERS) myself, I have obviously certain preferences and quite specific tastes for certain topics. From the outset, however, we tried to compile a list of potential contributors that was as wide and varied as possible. I have always been a strong believer that scientific ideas must be debated by the wider community; regardless of the personal opinions of some practitioners, or even groups of practitioners. On my side, this special issue was prepared with that principle in mind and it is my hope that the collection of articles here represent (as a whole) an unbiased overview of the state-of-the-art of many aspects around plasmonics and spectroscopy (with some emphasis on SERS).

The resulting collection of articles (after the unavoidable standard filtering of peer review) is quite interesting, and I hope it satisfies the curiosity of practioners from all walks of life. I shall not repeat the table of contents here, but only just mention briefly that the collection includes aspects on fundamental issues (for example, the super-resolution imaging experiments of Kate Willets, DOI: 10.1039/C3CP43882A), applications (as given, for example, in Karen Fauld's article on bio-analysis, DOI: 10.1039/C2CP43859C), as well as an interesting historical perspective by one of the pioneers and most eminent scientist in surface-enhanced spectroscopy (Martin Moskovits, DOI: 10.1039/C2CP44030J). It is my hope that the collection of articles gives a fair representation of the many different aspects that are being discussed in plasmonics and spectroscopy at the present time.

It remains on my side to say thank you to PCCP and the Royal Society of Chemistry for this opportunity. A special thanks must be given to Heather Montgomery who (as Development Editor of PCCP) conceived the idea as was most helpful in every aspect of the project; including relaxing deadlines due to my ill health in 2012. To Heather and the production team of PCCP: Thank you!

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