Introduction to advances in plasmonics and its applications

Ramon A. Alvarez-Puebla

Prof. Ramon A. Alvarez-Puebla is an expert in surface science, nanoscience, and spectroscopy with emphasis on the manufacturing and characterization of plasmonic materials and their integration into advanced detection devices especially with applications in nano-biomedicine. He has a degree in chemistry (Universidad de Navarra, 2000) and a doctorate in surface science (Universidad Publica de Navarra, 2003, summa cum laude). He completed his postdoctorate at the University of Windsor (Windsor, ON, Canada) and General Motors Corporation (Warren, MI, USA) in nanofabrication and surface spectroscopy (SERS, SEFS, and SEIRA) with Prof. Ricardo Aroca (UWINDSOR) and Prof. Gholam Abbas Nazri (GMC). During 2006–2007, he worked as a Research Officer and Principal Investigator at the National Institute for Nanotechnology of the National Research Council of Canada (NINT-NRC, Edmonton, AB, Canada). In 2008 he returned to Spain as an Associate Professor at the Universidade de Vigo. Since 2012, he has been the ICREA Professor at the Universitat Rovira i Virgili in Tarragona, where he leads the Plasmonics and Ultradetection Group (Zeptonic).

Jian-Feng Li

Jian-Feng Li is a full Professor of Chemistry at Xiamen University. He received his BSc degree in Chemistry from Zhejiang University in 2003, and his PhD degree in Chemistry from Xiamen University in 2010. He worked as a post-doc at University of Bern and ETH Zurich in Switzerland during 2011–2014. Professor Li's research interests include plasmonic core–shell nanostructures, surface-enhanced Raman spectroscopy, electrochemistry, surface catalysis, and rapid detection using portable Raman instruments. He is a senior editor of J. Phys. Chem. and won the National Outstanding Youth Fund (NSFC) and the Youth Science and Technology Award of China.

Xing Yi Ling

Xing Yi Ling received her Ph.D. degree in Chemistry from University of Twente, the Netherlands in 2009. She did postdoctoral research at the University of California, Berkeley between 2009 and 2011. She is currently an Associate Professor in the Division of Chemistry and Biological Chemistry, Nanyang Technological University, Singapore. She is the recipient of a L'Oréal Singapore for Women in Science National Fellowship (2015), a Singapore National Research Foundation Fellowship (2012), and an IUPAC Young Chemist award (2009). Her research focuses on using molecule-specific surface-enhanced Raman spectroscopy (SERS) for fundamental studies and applications in catalysis, sensing, and diagnosis.

Plasmonics can be defined simply as the science that studies plasmons. A plasmon can be defined as the quantum of plasma oscillations, from the point of view of quantum physics, or as the electromagnetic field produced by the collective oscillations of the conduction electrons in a given material, as considered by classical physics. When a plasmon is coupled with electromagnetic radiation, another quasiparticle called a plasmon-polariton is generated and this phenomenon occurs at characteristic frequencies, which for materials such as gold and silver are within the visible spectrum of light. Plasmons can be classified as a function of the place where they are excited. Thus, plasmons excited in the bulk of large materials, usually by electron beams, are known as bulk plasmons (non-radiative). Those excited on the surface of continuous thin films, usually by light, are denominated as surface plasmon resonances (SPRs, non-radiative). However, plasmons excited in small particles (i.e., nanostructures) are designated as localized surface plasmon resonances (LSPRs, radiative) and are the essence of nanoplasmonics.¹

Plasmons can be tracked back over 100 years. In 1902, Wood reported an anomalous decrease in the intensity of light reflected by a metallic grating, which we now know is attributed to the excitation of SPRs mediated by the periodic structure of the grating.² In 1904, Maxwell Garnett explained the color of glasses containing small metallic particles by developing the Maxwell Garnett theory of effective dielectric constant.³ This development was followed by Mie's electromagnetic theory of scattering and absorption of light by spherical particles, which explained the color in colloidal solutions of metals.⁴ The term plasmon was first proposed and theoretically demonstrated by Bohm in 1952,⁵ followed by the theoretically derived dispersion of SPRs in films by Ritchie (1957)⁶ which was experimentally demonstrated by Powell and Swan in 1959.⁷ Andreas Otto demonstrated the possibility of exciting SPRs on silver in 1968,⁸ paving the road for SPR biosensors. Finally, in 1974 Fleischmann reported on the extremely strong Raman signals of pyridine molecules adsorbed at roughened surfaces of a silver electrode,⁹ the basis of surface-enhanced Raman scattering (SERS) spectroscopy, misunderstanding the cause as a pure surface increase due to the redox cycles rather than a LSPR effect as demonstrated later by Jeanmaire and Van Duyne¹⁰ and Albrecht and Creighton in 1977.¹¹ During the eighties and most of the nineties the field of plasmonics decayed, with mostly academic demonstrations of the enhancing capabilities of SERS spectroscopy, as stated by Martin Moskovits in 1985,¹² with a mighty rebirth after the SERS demonstration of single molecule detection by the Kneipp¹³ and Nie¹⁴ groups in 1997. From this point onward, the field of plasmonics was refueled and started to expand and penetrate into various interdisciplinary research fields such as materials science, analytical chemistry, biology or medicine.

In this themed issue we have assembled a collection of articles related to the wide field of plasmonics and its latest developments including theory, methodology, material fabrication and a large sample of applications in environmental, biological and medical fields. Finally, it is our great pleasure to be the guest editors of this themed issue. We are very grateful to all the authors for their contributions and splendid cooperation during editing, and especially to Hannah Kerr, Development Editor, and Christopher Dias, Publishing Editor, for their kind help and expert suggestions throughout this process. Also, we are deeply indebted to all the reviewers for their prompt and devoted professional evaluation, critical to maintaining the quality of the issue.

References

1. M. I. Stockman, Phys. Today, 2011, 64, 39–44.
2. R. W. Wood, London, Edinburgh Dublin Philos. Mag. J. Sci., 1902, 4, 396–402.
3. J. C. Maxwell Garnett, Philos. Trans. R. Soc. London, A, 1904, 203, 385–420.
4. G. Mie, Ann. Phys., 1908, 330, 377–445.
5. D. Pines and D. Bohm, Phys. Rev., 1952, 85, 338–353.
6. R. H. Ritchie, Phys. Rev., 1957, 106, 874–881.
7. C. J. Powell and J. B. Swan, Phys. Rev., 1959, 115, 869–875.
8. A. Otto, Z. Phys. A: Hadrons Nucl., 1968, 216, 398–410.
9. M. Fleischmann, P. J. Hendra and A. J. McQuillan, Chem. Phys. Lett., 1974, 26, 163–166.
10. D. L. Jeanmaire and R. P. Van Duyne, J. Electroanal. Chem. Interfacial Electrochem., 1977, 84, 1–20.
11. M. G. Albrecht and J. A. Creighton, J. Am. Chem. Soc., 1977, 99, 5215–5217.
12. M. Moskovits, Rev. Mod. Phys., 1985, 57, 783–826.
13. K. Kneipp, Y. Wang, H. Kneipp, L. T. Perelman, I. Itzkan, R. R. Dasari and M. S. Feld, Phys. Rev. Lett., 1997, 78, 1667–1670.
14. S. Nie and S. R. Emory, Science, 1997, 275, 1102–1106.

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