Molecular electronic plasmonics

Abstract Molecular electronic plasmonics (MEP) is an area of research that utilizes the electronic properties of molecules to control and modulate surface plasmons and holds the potential to develop on-chip integrated molecular-plasmonic devices for information processing and computing. Combining molecular electronics with plasmonics gives the opportunity to study both charge transport in molecular electronic devices and plasmonics in the quantum regime. Here, we review the recent progress in molecular electronic plasmonics and mainly focus on the areas of quantum plasmonics, and plasmon excitation and detection. This review also identifies challenges that need to be resolved to drive this field forward including improving models aimed to advance our understanding of electron-plasmon interactions in the quantum tunneling regime. Future progresses can be expected towards incorporating functional molecules to actively control MEP devices and integration of MEPs with other circuit components.