January 2011, Andreas M. Kern and Olivier J. F. Martin from the Nanophotonics and Metrology Laboratory at the Swiss Federal Institute of Technology Lausanne (EPFL), published a paper on the "Excitation and Reemission of Molecules near Realistic Plasmonic Nanostructures".

  ABSTRACT: The enhancement of excitation and reemission of molecules in close proximity to plasmonic nanostructures is studied with special focus on the comparison between idealized and realistically shaped nanostructures numerical experiments show that for certain applications choosing a realistic geometry closely resembling the actual nanostructure is imperative, an idealized simulation geometry yielding significantly different results. Finally, a link between excitation and reemission processes is formed via the theory of optical reciprocity, allowing a transparent view of the electromagnetic processes involved in plasmon-enhanced fluorescence and Raman-scattering. (click here to download the paper)