It is well assessed that the charge transport through a chiral potential barrier can result in spin-polarized charges. The possibility of driving this process through visible photons holds tremendous potential...

The use of magneto-optical techniques to tune the plasmonic response of nanostructures is a hot topic in active plasmonics, with fascinating implications for several plasmon-based applications and devices. For this emerging field, called magnetoplasmonics, plasmonic nanomaterials with strong optical response to magnetic field are desired, which is generally challenging to achieve with pure noble metals. To overcome this issue, several efforts have been carried out to design and tailor the magneto-optical response of metal nanostructures, mainly by combining plasmonic and magnetic materials in a single nanostructure. In this tutorial we focus our attention on magnetoplasmonic effects in purely plasmonic nanostructures, as they are a valuable model system allowing for an easier rationalization of magnetoplasmonic effects. The most common magneto-optical experimental methods employed to measure these effects are introduced, followed by a review of the major experimental observations that are discussed within the framework of an analytical model developed for the rationalization of magnetoplasmonic effects. Different materials are discussed, from noble metals to novel plasmonic materials, such as heavily doped semiconductors.

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Plasmon resonance modulation with an external magnetic field (magnetoplasmonics) represents a promising route for the improvement of the sensitivity of plasmon-based refractometric sensing. To this purpose, an accurate material choice is needed to realize hybrid nanostructures with an improved magnetoplasmonic response. In this work, we prepared core@shell nanostructures made of an 8 nm Au core surrounded by an ultrathin iron oxide shell (≤1 nm). The presence of the iron oxide shell was found to significantly enhance the magneto-optical response of the noble metal in the localized surface plasmon region, compared with uncoated Au nanoparticles. With the support of an analytical model, we ascribed the origin of the enhancement to the shell-induced increase in the dielectric permittivity around the Au core. The experiment points out the importance of the spectral position of the plasmonic resonance in determining the magnitude of the magnetoplasmonic response. Moreover, the analytical model proposed here represents a powerful predictive tool for the quantification of the magnetoplasmonic effect based on resonance position engineering, which has significant implications for the design of active magnetoplasmonic devices.