Electrons and photons can coexist as a single entity called a surface plasmon—an elementary excitation found at the interface between a conductor and an insulator. Because of their hybrid electric and photonic nature, plasmons allow photons to be precisely controlled on the nanoscale. Plasmons are evident in the vivid hues of rose windows, which derive their color from small metallic nanoparticles embedded in the glass. They also provide the basis for color-changing biosensors (such as home pregnancy tests), photothermal cancer treatments, improved photovoltaic cell efficiencies, and nanoscale lasers. While surface plasmons were first identified nearly 55 years ago, many of their exciting applications are yet to come. This issue of MRS Bulletin reviews the progress and promise of plasmonics—from the characterization tools that have allowed nanometer-scale probing of plasmons to the new materials that may enable low-loss, active, and quantum plasmonics. Within reach are applications ranging from integrated plasmonic circuits for nanophotonic computation to plasmonic optical tweezers for manipulation of nano-sized particles and proteins.

Nanoshells, concentric nanoparticles consisting of a dielectric core and a metallic shell, are simple spherical nanostructures with unique, geometrically tunable optical resonances. As with all metallic nanostructures, their optical properties are controlled by the collective electronic resonance, or plasmon resonance, of the constituent metal, typically silver or gold. In striking contrast to the resonant properties of solid metallic nanostructures, which exhibit only a weak tunability with size or aspect ratio, the optical resonance of a nanoshell is extraordinarily sensitive to the inner and outer dimensions of the metallic shell layer. The underlying reason for this lies beyond classical electromagnetic theory, where plasmon-resonant nanoparticles follow a mesoscale analogue of molecular orbital theory, hybridizing in precisely the same manner as the individual atomic wave functions in simple molecules. This plasmon hybridization picture provides an essential “design rule” for metallic nanostructures that can allow us to effectively predict their optical resonant properties. Such a systematic control of the far-field optical resonances of metallic nanostructures is accomplished simultaneously with control of the field at the surface of the nanostructure. The nanoshell geometry is ideal for tuning and optimizing the near-field response as a stand-alone surface-enhanced Raman spectroscopy (SERS) nanosensor substrate and as a surface-plasmon-resonant nanosensor.Tuning the plasmon resonance of nanoshells into the near-infrared region of the spectrum has enabled a variety of biomedical applications that exploit the strong optical contrast available with nanoshells in a spectral region where blood and tissue are optimally transparent.

Carbon nanotubes (CNTs) are one-dimensional nanostructures with unique properties. This article discusses why CNTs provide an ideal basis for a future carbonbased nanoelectronic technology, focusing specifically on single-carbon-nanotube fieldeffect transistors (CNT-FETs). Results of transport experiments and theoretical modeling will be used to address such issues as the nature of the switching mechanism, the role of the metal contacts, the role of the environment, the FET scaling properties, and the use of these findings to produce high-performance p-type, n-type, and ambipolar CNT-FETs and simple intra-nanotube circuits. CNTs are also direct-gap nanostructures that show promise in the field of optoelectronics. This article briefly reviews their optical behavior and presents results that show that ambipolar CNT-FETs can be used to produce electrically controlled light sources based on radiative electron–hole recombination. The reverse process—that is, the generation of photocurrents by the irradiation of single CNT—FETs—and photoconductivity spectra of individual CNTs are also demonstrated.