Plasmonics – principles and applications

Plasmonics is a field of research investigating electromagnetic modes coupled to metal-dielectric interfaces and metal nanostructures. These modes are spatially confided bellow the wavelength of the light and their light intensity is strongly increased. These features make the use of plasmonics attractive for applications in biosensing, localised nano manipulation, energy transfer, optical scattering processes (metal enhanced fluorescence, surface enhanced Raman spectroscopy), etc. In the first part of the talk, the fundamentals of the plasmonics will be explained followed by the research projects investigated in our department, which spans from preparation of metallic nanostructures supporting the plasmonics modes, characterisation of these structures to use of them for biosensing, nanolithography and energy coupling.