HIERARCHICAL LAYER-MULTIPLE-SCATTERING THEORY FOR METAMATERIALS OF CLUSTERS OF NONSPHERICAL PARTICLES

We present a hierarchical layer-multiple-scattering method of electromagnetic waves for the study of photonic structures consisting of many-scatterers per unit cell (clusters of scatterers) where the scatterers are in general non-spherical and/or anisotropic or inhomogeneous. Our approach is a two-stage process where we take into account all the multiple-scattering events involved: (a) among the scatterers of the cluster comprising the unit cell of the structure, and (b) among the clusters within the structure. As text cases, we model the optical properties of plasmonic metamaterials made from clusters of gold nanocubes.