Often, the target analyte defines the choice of the metals for PFC sensing. It is right that gold renders good performance, however, copper and silver also possess some unique features. For instance, through adoption of silver, one can attain stability in response whereas gold yields better sensitivity. However, through adoption of suitable functionalities akin to the target, there is feasibility of enhancing the sensing yield of other metals as that of gold.
Hi. It's depend of the working wavelength. The best plasmonic effect with the lower losses is obtain when the real part of permittivity of the metal tend to 0 and the imaginary part is high as possible. To select the best metal for your application, data library like refractiveindex.info on the web site can be help you.