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Preface
metals), nano-photonics (to manipulate light at a length scale below
the diffraction limit), and optical microscopy (to measure the nearfield
around metallic objects).
Handbook of Molecular Plasmonics is intended for a broad
readership and contains both high-level specialized chapters and
introductory chapters as well as theoretical and experimental
reviews. The main idea underlying this project is to create a useful
feedback between theory and experiments, giving a theoretical
reference to experimentalists and, at the same time, new inputs to
theoreticians for further developments.
This handbook is organized in 10 chapters that reflect the
current status of this evolving scientific field, discuss the most recent
developments, and identify the directions of future research.
Chapter 1 introduces the basic foundations of molecular plasmonics.
It is a self-contained chapter, starting with Maxwell’s
equations and concluding with the derivation of the radiative
and non-radiative decay rates of emitting molecules near metal
surfaces and nanoparticles. After this introductory chapter, the
handbook is subdivided in two parts: the first one describes the
computational and theoretical methods of interest in molecular
plasmonics, while the second is entirely dedicated to the most
relevant applications and experimental techniques. Both parts
contain precious contributions from international experts to ensure
a plurality of points of view.
Part I, Theory and Computational Methods, opens with a chapter
by M. A. Yurkin (Russia) who describes in detail the Discrete
Dipole Approximation (DDA) approach, which is an efficient method
to study the absorption and scattering of metal nanoparticles of
arbitrary shapes. This chapter will serve as an important reference
for theoreticians to model metal nanoparticles. Chapter 3 reports
DDA results for nanoparticles of different sizes and shapes. This
systematic analysis, inspired by recent literature, should represent
an important reference for both experimentalists and theoreticians
to verify and compare the absorption and scattering spectra
of different nanoparticles. While these first two chapters are
completely dedicated to metal nanoparticles, Chapter 4 introduces
the discussion about the molecular counterpart. In this chapter
E. Fabiano (Italy) sheds light on the optical and photophysical