Objectives of Action MP0803

The main objective of this Action is to foster, coordinate, and strengthen European research on the physical properties and technological qualifications of plasmonic structures and their integration in Information Technologies and Biosensing devices.

Among the various challenges facing our society, two are particularly marked: The continuous growth of required information processing power and the monitoring of health, not only in western aging societies, but also in developing countries.

Addressing these issues requires a variety of technological solutions. The objective of this COST Action is to explore an original venue for optical signal processing and biosensing based on plasmonics.
Over the last 10 years, plasmonics - the optics of metallic nanostructures - has emerged as a very promising technology. The possibility to guide light in the form of surface plasmon waves on metallic films is attractive for integrating photonics with Silicon electronics on a fully compatible platform. Furthermore, the propagation of surface plasmons or the excitation of localized plasmon resonances is extremely sensitive to its immediate environment and provides the basics for very sensitive biosensing.

Since 1995, publications in plasmonics have doubled every five years and this trend is accelerating. Although Europe has kept its historical leadership in this field of research, there is now fierce competition from North America and Asia. It goes without saying that worldwide research is desirable to advance scientific and technological knowledge. However, in high-tech segments such as photonics, the transformation of this new knowledge into products and economic wealth can only happen where strong links between research, development and production exist. In this respect the networking and capacity-building activities made possible by this COST Action will be an asset for the European economy.
In spite of tremendous progress in our understanding of how plasmonics work, there remain several questions to be addressed. These questions are both fundamental (e.g. how can plasmon propagation losses be reduced, how can plasmons be modulated) and very applied (e.g. how can plasmons be integrated with CMOS technology). Such questions shall be addressed in this COST Action.

Integration of electronic, photonic and sensing components on the same chip will not only make novel devices available that allow faster data processing or higher integration than existing ones; it will permit a completely new paradigm for the creation, transmission and treatment of information based on surface waves. This paradigm will find a broad field of applications from integrated electronic circuits, to photonic networks and point of care biosensors.