Plasmonic nanowire coupled to zero-dimensional nanostructures: A brief review

Metal nanowires and nanoparticles that facilitate surface plasmons are of contemporary interest in nanophotonics, thermoplasmonics and optoelectronics. They facilitate not only subwavelength light propagation and localization capabilities, but also provide an excellent platform for opto-thermal effects confined to volumes down to the nanoscale. This brief review article aims to provide an overview of a specific nanophotonic geometry: a plasmonic nanowire coupled to a zero-dimensional nanostructure. We discuss the methods to prepare such nano-architectures and review some interesting nanophotonic applications that arise out of it. We conclude with a discussion on some emerging research directions that can be facilitated by employing the coupled nanostructures.