Plasmonics squeezes light into dimensions far
beyond the diffraction limit by coupling the light with the
surface collective oscillation of free electrons at the
interface of a metal and a dielectric. Plasmonics, referred
to as a promising candidate for high-speed and high-
density integrated circuits, bridges microscale photonics
and nanoscale electronics and offers similar speed of
photonic devices and similar dimension of electronic
devices. Various types of passive and active surface
plasmon polariton (SPP) enabled devices with enhanced
deep-subwavelength mode confinement have attracted
increasing interest including waveguides, lasers and
biosensors. Despite the trade-off between the unavoidable
metal absorption loss and extreme light concentration, the
ever-increasing research efforts have been devoted to
seeking low-loss plasmon-assisted nanophotonic devices
with deep-subwavelength mode confinement, which might
find potential applications in high-density nanophotonic
integration and efficient nonlinear signal processing. In
addition, other plasmon-assisted nanophotonic devices
might also promote grooming functionalities and applica-
tions benefiting from plasmonics.
In this review article, we give a brief overview of our
recent progress in plasmon-assisted nanophotonic devices
and their wide applications, including long-range hybrid
plasmonic slot (LRHPS) waveguide, ultra-compact plas-
monic microresonator with efficient thermo-optic tuning,
high quality (Q) factor and small mode volume, compact
active hybrid plasmonic ring resonator for deep-subwave-
length lasing applications, fabricated hybrid plasmonic
waveguides for terabit-scale photonic interconnection, and
metamaterials-based broadband and selective generation of
orbital angular momentum (OAM) carrying vector beams.
It is believed that plasmonics opens possible new ways to

• A review of recent progress in plasmon-assisted nanophotonic devices