A new optical sensor that uses local plasmon resonance is proposed. A peak that is due to the local plasmon resonance appears in the absorption spectrum of a gold colloid suspension in the visible region, and its height and wavelength depend on the refractive index of the suspension. These properties are used for optical sensors. We used gold colloid monolayers in which colloidal gold particles a few tens of nanometers in diameter were immobilized upon a glass slide by a functional organic coupling agent. We measured the absorption spectra of the the gold colloid monolayers, which were immersed in liquid samples or coated with thin films. We observed increases of both the resonance wavelength and the absorbance as the refractive indices of the sample liquids or the thickness of the coated films increased. The proportional constants of the resonance wavelength to the film thickness were 3.6 and 5.7 for a 13.9- and a 20.2-nm gold colloid monolayer, respectively.

The resonance wavelength of the surface plasmon in gold nanoparticles above a gold substrate has been measured using transmission absorption spectroscopy. Gold nanoparticles with diameters in the range of 20-100 nm are immobilized onto a thin gold film deposited onto a glass substrate by a self-assembled monolayer of aminoethanethiol. The resonance wavelength obtained in the experiments shows a large red shift. Its dependence on the particle diameter shows good agreement with theoretical results that are calculated using a static approximation that includes multipole effects.

Surface plasmons are collective oscillations of free electrons localized at surfaces of structures made of metals. Since the surface plasmons induce fluctuations of electric charge at surfaces, they are accompanied by electromagnetic oscillations. Electromagnetic fields associated with surface plasmons are localized at surfaces of metallic structures and significantly enhanced compared with the excitation field. These two characteristics are ingredients for making good use of surface plasmons in plasmonics. Plasmonics is a rapidly growing and well-established research field, which covers various aspects of surface plasmons towards realization of a variety of surface-plasmon-based devices. In this paper, after summarizing the fundamental aspects of surface plasmons propagating on planar metallic surfaces and localized at metallic nanoparticles, recent progress in plasmonic waveguides, plasmonic light-emitting devices and plasmonic solar cells is reviewed.

The potential of fluorescence correlation spectroscopy (FCS) is extended to enable the direct observation of anomalous subdiffusion (ASD) in inhomogeneous media that are of great importance particularly in many biological systems, such as membranes, cytoplasm, and extracellular matrices (ECMs). Because ASD can be confirmed by monitoring the spatiotemporal dependence of observable diffusion coefficients (D(obs)), the size of the effective confocal volume (V(eff)) for FCS sampling (sampling volume) was continuously changed on a scale of 300-500 nm using a motorized variable beam expander through which an illuminating laser beam passes. This new method, namely, sampling-volume-controlled (SVC)-FCS, was applied to the analysis of hyaluronan (HA) aqueous solutions where the D(obs) of light-emitting solute (Alexa 488) markedly changed, corresponding to the change in V(eff) (220-340 nm in the half-axis), because the network structure of HA of 7-33 nm (nanostructure) interferes with the material transport within it. The results indicate that moderate ASD may occur even in the presence of a small amount ( approximately 0.1 wt %) of HA in ECM. Because the change in D(obs) along with the traveling distance (the mean-square displacement) can be identified even in systems with no deformation of the autocorrelation function, this technique has a great potential for general applications to many biological systems in which ASD shows complex time and space dependences.

A two-dimensional periodically corrugated silver surface prohibits the propagation of the surface plasmons in all lateral directions. And band gaps are generated in the dispersion relation, named plasmonic band gaps. At the edge of this band gap, surface plasmons are laterally confined as standing waves. We investigate this phenomenon for lasing action by the use of a dye film deposited on a corrugated silver surface. Fluorescence of the dye was strongly enhanced. Indeed, we obtained an enhancement factor 150 for a methyl-red doped poly (methylmethacrylate) film and 3 for an evaporated 4-dicyanomethylene-2-methyl-6-p-dimethyl-aminostyryl-4H-pyran film. We also discuss the conditions under which lasing action may occur.