Efficient modal analysis of plasmonic nanoparticles: from retardation to nonclassical regimes

With recent developments in nanotechnologies, metal nanoparticles permeate a wide range of dimension scales, from light wavelength-scale domains down to a few nanometers approaching electronic scales. The electrodynamics at metal surfaces hosts a rich interplay between plasmon oscillations, retardation effects of light, and nonclassical (quantum) effects of electrons. Incorporating all these effects and modeling optical responses of nanoparticles generally rely on pure numerical methods, which are, however, disadvantageous in physical interpretations and computational speed. Herein, we establish a modal method that accurately predicts plasmon responses of metal nanoparticles, including both retardation and nonclassical corrections on an equal footing. The proposed method, based on electrostatic plasmon modes, is parameterized by a set of geometrically dependent factors, which, once computed, can be repeatedly used for same-shaped nanoparticles independent of size and material composition. The predictive accuracy of the method is examined for single nanoparticles, multi-scale plasmonic architectures—such as dimer structures with deep-nanometer gap—and geometrically deformed structures, with feature dimensions ranging from a few nanometers to hundreds of nanometers.