Plasmonics: Enabling functionalities with novel materials

The interaction of electromagnetic fields with matter and the ability to harvest and manipulate light at the nanoscale has turned the research on plasmonic nanomaterials into a booming field of study. Plasmonic materials, along with their nanostructural details and hybridization, can offer new research directions in plasmonics. These can address hurdles and issues related to advancing plasmonics applications in more consolidated technologies like photovoltaics, biochemical sensors, photocatalysis, optical devices, as well as in the innovative fields of single photon sources, all-optical switches, and quantum information processing. This special topic issue provides a timely forum for highlighting emerging classes of materials that support plasmon excitation, sharing recent advances in their synthesis, theory, modeling, spectroscopic approaches, and fabrication methods that are advancing fundamental understanding of plasmon excitations. In addition to original research articles, invited tutorials and perspectives provide hints for future research and showcase new applications enabled by plasmonics applications.