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The increasing interest of the scientific community in the nanocomposite thin films containing nobel metal nanoparticles (MNP) embedded in dielectric matrices is related to a relatively wide range of possible applications. Although it may sound strange, the awareness of the properties and applications of this kind of nanocomposites already existed many centuries ago. To begin with, MNP provided different colours in Roman glasses, as the well-known Lycurgus Cup from the third century, which nowadays can be visited in the British Museum of London. Another remarkable example of this ancient use of this kind of nanocomposite system is the on the fabrication of medieval cathedrals’ windows that were decorated with noble metal powders (commonly from Au). For certain powder conditions, the addition would give rise to astonishing effects on the cathedral windows, namely in certain tones of blue and red that could be obtained. This was done during centuries. More recently, the use of these films on high value consumer goods is gaining increasing interest, namely for decorative applications, jewellery and some domestic technological devices and furniture. The rapid development of different preparation approaches and the increasing knowledge that is becoming available from the study of the scientific content that is involved in these nanocomposites, together with a detailed characterisation of their main properties, is bringing an increasing amount of new and modern applications, beyond those of purely decorative purposes. Among the new possibilities, it worth mention those related with the fabrication of colour filters (Takele et al, 2006) bioand optical sensors (Hutter & Fendler, 2004; Walters & Parkin, 2008; Torrell et al., 2010a), absorption elements of solar cells (Walters & Parkin 2008), enhancement of electrical/thermal conductivity of coatings, photocatalytic antibacterials (Wang et al., 2006a), pollutant-degradation materials (Pacholski et al., 2004; Wu & Tseng, 2006; Li et al., 2009), gas sensors (Atashbar et al., 1998; Walton et al., 1998), nonlinear optical devices (Walters & Parkin, 2008; Cho et al., 2000;

Nanocomposite Thin Films Resulting from Au Nanoclusters Dispersed in Titanium Oxide Dielectric Matrixes: the Surface Plasmon Resonance Effect