Skip to main content

Thank you for visiting nature.com. You are using a browser version with limited support for CSS. To obtain the best experience, we recommend you use a more up to date browser (or turn off compatibility mode in Internet Explorer). In the meantime, to ensure continued support, we are displaying the site without styles and JavaScript.

Plasmonics

The benefits of darkness

Nature Materials volume 8, pages 699–700 (2009)Cite this article

The clever exploitation of dark modes in plasmonic nanostructures leads to devices with sharp resonances and low losses that promise applications in biochemical sensing and optical communications.

Metallic nanostructures are widely investigated in nanophotonics applications because they can sustain pronounced electromagnetic resonances — known as localized plasmon modes. These surface plasmons provide a means for light localization below the diffraction limit, as well as for enhanced scattering and absorption of photons. For the past few years, nanotechnology has provided us with the tool set to vigorously exploit this classical phenomenon for applications ranging from single-molecule sensing to nanoscale photonic waveguides1. On page 758 of this issue, Na Liu and colleagues, adapting a concept from atomic physics, demonstrate how advanced control over the lineshape of plasmon resonances in metallic nanostructures may lead to new applications in biochemical sensing2.

Your institute does not have access to this article

Relevant articles

Open Access articles citing this article.

Access options

Buy article

Get time limited or full article access on ReadCube.

$32.00

Buy

All prices are NET prices.

Figure 1

NA LIU

References

  1. Lal, S., Link, S. & Halas, N. J. Nature Photon. 1, 641–648 (2007).

    CAS  Article  Google Scholar 

  2. Liu, N. et al. Nature Mater. 8, 758–762 (2009).

    CAS  Article  Google Scholar 

  3. Nordlander, P. ACS Nano 3, 488–492 (2009).

    CAS  Article  Google Scholar 

  4. Alzar, C. L. G., Martinez, M. A. G. & Nussenzveig, P. Am. J. Phys. 70, 37–41 (2002).

    Article  Google Scholar 

  5. Papasimakis, N., Fedotov, V. A., Zheludev, N. I. & Prosvirnin, S. L. Phys. Rev. Lett. 101, 253903 (2008).

    CAS  Article  Google Scholar 

  6. Hao, F., Nordlander, P., Sonnefraud, Y., Van Dorpe, P. & Maier, S. A. ACS Nano 3, 643–652 (2009).

    CAS  Article  Google Scholar 

  7. Zhang, S., Genov, D. A., Wang, Y., Liu, M. & Zhang, X. Phys. Rev. Lett. 101, 047401 (2008).

    Article  Google Scholar 

  8. Verellen, N. et al. Nano Lett. 9, 1663–1667 (2009).

    CAS  Article  Google Scholar 

  9. Kravets, V. G., Schedin, F. & Grigorenko, A. N. Phys. Rev. Lett. 101, 087403 (2008).

    CAS  Article  Google Scholar 

Download references

Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Stefan A. Maier is in the Department of Physics, Imperial College London, London SW7 2AZ, UK. s.maier@imperial.ac.uk,

    Stefan A. Maier

Authors
  1. Stefan A. Maier
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

Rights and permissions

Reprints and Permissions

About this article

Cite this article

Maier, S. The benefits of darkness. Nature Mater 8, 699–700 (2009). https://doi.org/10.1038/nmat2522

Download citation

  • Issue Date:

  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/nmat2522

Further reading

Search

Advanced search

Quick links

Nature Briefing

Sign up for the Nature Briefing newsletter — what matters in science, free to your inbox daily.

Get the most important science stories of the day, free in your inbox. Sign up for Nature Briefing