Investigating the plasmonics of a dipole-excited silver nanoshell: Mie theory versus finite element method

This report compares COMSOL's finite element method (FEM) algorithm with the Mie theory for solving the electromagnetic fields in the vicinity of a silica-silver core-shell nanoparticle when excited by a radiating dipole. The novelty of this investigation lies in the excitation source of the nanoshell system: an oscillating electric dipole is frequently used as a model for both molecular scattering and molecular fluorescence; moreover, a common classical model of atomic or molecular spontaneous emission is a decaying electric dipole. The radiated power spectra were evaluated both analytically and numerically by integrating the Poynting vector around 20, 60 and 100 nm nanoshells, thereby solving the total and scattered fields generated by a dipole positioned inside the core and in the surrounding air medium, respectively. The agreement was excellent in amplitude, plasmon resonance peak position and full width at half-maximum. The FEM algorithm also generates accurate solutions of the near-field electromagnetics in the spatial domain, where the E-field behavior as a function of polar angle theta for a fixed observation radius was evaluated. The quasistatic approximation, which is valid for small nanoparticles, is also employed to assess its limitations relative to the Mie and FEM algorithms.