Plasmonic Properties and Applications of Aluminum Nanostructures

Aluminium nanostructures have emerged as a versatile platform for plasmonics owing to the metal’s high plasma frequency, natural abundance and compatibility with ultraviolet wavelengths. When reduced to the nanoscale, aluminium supports pronounced localised surface plasmon resonances that can be tuned across the ultraviolet and visible spectrum through careful control of size, shape and surface oxide thickness. These resonances generate strong near-field enhancements that find utility in surface-enhanced spectroscopy, photocatalysis and light-harvesting applications. Intrinsic oxide shells, while posing a challenge by damping plasmonic modes, can be leveraged as dielectric gaps or stabilising shells in core–shell architectures. Nanovoids, nanoporous networks and multilayer films further enable engineering of gap modes and hot-spot intensities, opening pathways to high-sensitivity sensors and improved energy conversion devices. The flexibility of aluminium nanostructures underpins their global relevance in biosensing, environmental monitoring and next-generation photonic devices.

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Plasmonic Properties and Applications of Aluminum Nanostructures publication trend

The graph below shows the total number of articles in plasmonic properties and applications of aluminum nanostructures across all publications each year (not limited to Nature Index journals).

Technical terms

Localized surface plasmon resonance (LSPR): collective oscillation of conduction electrons in a metallic nanostructure induced by incident light, producing strong local field enhancement.

Surface-enhanced Raman scattering (SERS): amplification of Raman scattering signals through near-field enhancement at plasmonic nanostructures, enabling sensitive molecular detection.

Dielectric function: complex permittivity describing how a material polarises in response to an electromagnetic field, governing plasmon resonance conditions.

Galvanic replacement reaction: a redox process in which a sacrificial metal template is partially dissolved and replaced by another metal, yielding nanoporous architectures.

Dielectric gap plasmon modes: tightly confined electromagnetic modes that arise in nanoscale dielectric separations between metallic surfaces, leading to intense local fields.

References

1. Nanoimprint Lithography of Al Nanovoids for Deep-UV SERS. ACS Applied Materials & Interfaces (2014).
2. How an oxide shell affects the ultraviolet plasmonic behavior of Ga, Mg, and Al nanostructures.. Optics Express (2016).
3. Plasmonics in the Ultraviolet with Aluminum, Gallium, Magnesium and Rhodium. Applied Sciences (2018).
4. Aluminum plasmonic photocatalysis. Scientific Reports (2015).
5. Aluminum plasmonic nanostructures for improved absorption in organic photovoltaic devices. Applied Physics Letters (2011).
6. Fluorescence enhancement with deep-ultraviolet surface plasmon excitation.. Optics Express (2013).
7. Aluminum nanoparticle films with an enhanced hot-spot intensity for high-efficiency SERS.. Optics Express (2020).
8. Galvanic Replacement Reaction as a Route to Prepare Nanoporous Aluminum for UV Plasmonics. Nanomaterials (2020).