Plasmonic Nanostructure Lattices for High-Performance Sensing

Plasmonic nanostructures show great promise for sensing because their nanoscale confined light fields are sensitive to the change in the surroundings. Conventional plasmonic sensors based on surface plasmon polaritons (SPPs) and localized surface plasmon resonances (LSPRs) have inspired considerable progress in sensing but still suffer from an oblique incidence or moderate sensitivity. This review focuses on how the rational design of novel plasmonic nanostructures can enable high-performance sensing. Patterned nanostructures such as nanoparticle (NP) lattices to support surface lattice resonances (SLRs) and plasmonic nanogaps with nanogap modes are emerging to overcome the sensing limitations of SPP and LSPR. Moreover, hybrid nanostructures of plasmonic components with functional materials, such as metal-organic frameworks, 2D materials, oxides, and polymers, show opportunities to further improve sensitivity and selectivity. In addition, plasmonic nanolasing and resonance modes from new materials exhibit appealing features for sensing. It is expected that further studies on plasmonic nanostructures with low-loss materials, chirality characteristics, novel devices, and advanced fabrications will provide outlooks for high-performance sensing.