Particle plasmons of metal nanospheres: application of multiple scattering approach

In this paper, we study particle plasmons associated with a chain of metal nanospheres by the method of multiple scattering. The extinction efficiency is used to identify the resonant modes in nanoparticle chains. Special emphasis is placed upon the multipolar nature of particle plasmons at two major resonant modes by studying the associated field patterns, surface charges, and distributions of the field enhancement. Effects of the number of particles, interparticle spacing, and particle alignment are investigated by examining the frequency shift, bandwidth, and the number of resonant modes.