Surface plasmons in metallic nanoparticles: fundamentals and applications

The excitation of surface plasmons (SPs) in metallic nanoparticles (NPs) induces optical properties hardly achievable in other optical materials, yielding a wide range of applications in many fields. This review presents an overview of SPs in metallic NPs. The concept of SPs in NPs is qualitatively described using a comparison with simple linear oscillators. The mathematical models to carry on calculations on SPs are presented as well as the most common approximations. The different parameters governing the features of SPs and their effect on the optical properties of the materials are reviewed. Finally, applications of SPs in different fields such as biomedicine, energy, environment protection and information technology are revised.