Nanoplasmonic Field Enhancement

While a part of this enhancement is attributed to changes in the chemical polarizability of the molecule due to interactions with the 

The enhanced near-field of plasmon resonant metal nanoparticles has also been employed to induce local photolithography [27]. Due to the strongly confined nature of the near-field, sub-diffraction resolution is achievable. Plasmon enhanced nanolithography will be discussed in a later section. There have also been proposals on plasmon field-enhanced photochemistry and photocatalysis. 

For realizing phenomena that employ the near-field of metal nanoparticles, it is often necessary to engineer the near-field in 

The LSPR frequency is also tunable via changes in the dielectric properties of the medium surrounding the nanoparticle. As seen from Eq. (6.2), an increase in the medium dielectric constant Sout (or RI Pout = s/Pout) results in an increase in the negative value of ei required to satisfy the resonance condition, which causes a red-shift of the LSPR. In a physical sense, the increase in the medium dielectric constant results in a lowering of the Coulombic restoring force on the polarized electron cloud, thus lowering the LSPR frequency. The LSPR is thus sensitive to any Rl change in the local medium around 

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