Nanophotonics with Plasmonic Nanorod Metamaterials

Abstract

Taking advantage of their unique and tuneable electromagnetic properties, plasmonic metamaterials constitute a versatile platform for a variety of applications ranging from high‐resolution imaging, sensing and spontaneous emission engineering to ultrafast nonlinear optics and light polarization control. Here, recent advances in the design and applications of plasmonic metamaterials based on aligned metallic nanorod assemblies are reviewed, and the fast‐developing trends in their exploitation in nanophotonics are outlined. The fabrication of the nanorod‐based metamaterials is introduced and their linear and nonlinear optical properties are presented from both microscopic and phenomenological considerations. Multiscale structuring allowing precise engineering of the electromagnetic modes supported by the nanorod metamaterials, as well as nonlocal spatial dispersion effects and their impact on nanophotonic performance are discussed. To illustrate the developing field of practical applications of these metamaterials, some of their main application domains in sensing, photochemistry and nonlinear optics are overviewed and novel designs of anisotropic metamaterials directly derived from the nanorod architecture are introduced.