2 research outputs found
Vibrational modes of metal nanoshells and bimetallic core-shell nanoparticles
We study theoretically spectrum of radial vibrational modes in composite
metal nanostructures such as bimetallic core-shell particles and metal
nanoshells with dielectric core in an environment. We calculate frequencies and
damping rates of fundamental (breathing) modes for these nanostructures along
with those of two higher-order modes. For metal nanoshells, we find that the
breathing mode frequency is always lower than the one for solid particles of
the same size, while the damping is higher and increases with reduction of the
shell thickness. We identify two regimes that can be characterized as weakly
damped and overdamped vibrations in the presence of external medium. For
bimetalllic particles, we find periodic dependence of frequency and damping
rate on the shell thickness with period determined by mode number. For both
types of nanostructures, the frequency of higher modes is nearly independent of
the environment, while the damping rate shows strong sensitivity to outside
medium.Comment: 7 pages, 8 figure
Surface plasmon lifetime in metal nanoshells
The lifetime of localized surface plasmon plays an important role in many
aspects of plasmonics and its applications. In small metal nanostructures, the
dominant mechanism restricting plasmon lifetime is size-dependent Landau
damping. We performed quantum-mechanical calculations of Landau damping for the
bright surface plasmon mode in a metal nanoshell. In contrast to the
conventional model based on the electron surface scattering, we found that the
damping rate decreases as the nanoshell thickness is reduced. The origin of
this behavior is traced to the spatial distribution of plasmon local field
inside the metal shell. We also found that, due to interference of electron
scattering amplitudes from nanoshell's two metal surfaces, the damping rate
exhibits pronounced quantum beats with changing shell thickness.Comment: 9 pages, 4 Figure