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Spectrally dependent locations of hot‐spots in nanoparticle clusters
Author(s) -
Letnes Paul Anton,
Simonsen Ingve
Publication year - 2010
Publication title -
physica status solidi (b)
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.51
H-Index - 109
eISSN - 1521-3951
pISSN - 0370-1972
DOI - 10.1002/pssb.200983928
Subject(s) - cluster (spacecraft) , electric field , spheres , symmetry (geometry) , field (mathematics) , ray , spots , nanoparticle , local field , physics , hot spot (computer programming) , circular symmetry , materials science , molecular physics , optics , computational physics , condensed matter physics , nanotechnology , classical mechanics , geometry , quantum mechanics , chemistry , mathematics , astronomy , computer science , pure mathematics , programming language , operating system
Abstract We study the optical response of clusters of metallic nanospheres in the electrostatic approximation, using a spherical harmonic representation of the electric field. Field enhancement and near field interactions between the spheres are investigated numerically. Symmetry properties of certain clusters give rise to highly localized maxima of the electric field, denoted “hot spots.” From numerical experiments performed at optical frequencies of the incident light, it is found that various geometrical configurations exhibit interesting phenomena; in particular, that hot spots move spatially around as a function of the frequency of the incident light. We present simulation results for the simplest nanoparticle cluster known to exhibit these interesting phenomena, namely, a regular octahedron.