Plasmonics is a rapidly developing field that combines fundamental research and applications ranging from areas such as physics to engineering, chemistry, biology, medicine, food sciences, and the environmental sciences. Plasmonics appeared in the 1950s with the discovery of surface plasmon polaritons. Plasmonics then went through a novel propulsion in the mid-1970s, when surface-enhanced Raman scattering was discovered. Nevertheless, it is in this last decade that a very significant explosion of plasmonics and its applications has occurred. Thus, this book provides a snapshot of the current advances in these various areas of plasmonics and its applications, such as engineering, sensing, surface-enhanced fluorescence, catalysis, and photovoltaic devices. |