Influence of disorder on the optical properties of spherical plasmonic nanoclusters

The optical response of irregular spherical nanoclusters (NCs) are studied by Monte Carlo simulations. Deviations from nominal arrangements are considered by introducing either randomly variable sizes of the constituent particles or random displacements of particle locations around the NC core. The impact of disorder on NC resonances is examined by decomposing the scattered fields in terms of contributions of electromagnetic multipoles, such as electric and magnetic dipoles, quadrupoles, and higher order moments. © 2012 IEEE