Plasmon Hybridization in Clusters of Metal Nanoparticles and Magnetic Nanoparticle Oligomers

Abstract

As the field of plasmonics develops, new knobs to turn and levers to pull become available to researchers. From the morphology and material composition of individual nanoparticles to background environments tunable in real time to aggregation scheme and spatial arrangement, many avenues for controllably altering the optical properties of metal nanoclusters are being explored. In this dissertation, we will focus on the latter; more specifically, the impact of metal nanocluster geometry on the collective plasmon behavior. It will be shown that complicated nanoparticle geometries can be modeled qualitatively as small nanoclusters of simpler shapes and that the introduction of asymmetry into a nanocluster can noticeably alter the nanocluster's plasmonic behavior. We will also study the impact of nanocluster size and shape by investigating the dynamic spectral ordering of the collective plasmon modes of cyclic or hexagonally-packed nanoclusters. The purpose of this dissertation is to demonstrate theoretical methods for quantifying collective behavior in metal nanoclusters, and show the utility of the simple coupled dipole model for this purpose.