Molecular thinking for nanoplasmonic design.

The development of nanoplasmonics has been tremendous during the past two decades, driven in part by the improvements in colloidal synthesis of nanocrystals and manipulation of nanoparticle surface functionalities. This has granted access not only to exquisite control over the morphology of nanoparticles but also to novel multiparticle nanostructures with a variety of organizational motifs. Driven by such new possibilities, completely unforeseen plasmonic effects have been found, which let us think about applications in a variety of fields. In this Perspective, we discuss the evolution of plasmonic nanomaterials and their corresponding properties and correlations with molecular concepts that have been around for a long time. Additional thinking along these lines may lead to further expansion of nanoplasmonics and to multiple surprising discoveries in this field.