Nonlocal response of plasmonic core-shell nanotopologies excited by dipole emitters.

In light of the emergence of nonclassical effects, a paradigm shift in the conventional macroscopic treatment is required to accurately describe the interaction between light and plasmonic structures with deep-nanometer features. Towards this end, several nonlocal response models, supplemented by additional boundary conditions, have been introduced, investigating the collective motion of the free electron gas in metals. The study of the dipole-excited core-shell nanoparticle has been performed, by employing the following models: the hard-wall hydrodynamic model; the quantum hydrodynamic model; and the generalized nonlocal optical response.

Benchmarking of software tools for the characterization of nanoparticles.

Although many commercially available electromagnetic tools are conveniently used in RF and microwave applications, only a few of them provide the capability to analyze the optical response of nanometric radiators and scatterers. The assessment of their performance in the visible to near ultraviolet part of the electromagnetic (EM) spectrum becomes more and more important, considering the exponential rise of nanoscale systems. Since the accuracy of these numerical tools has not been fully investigated in literature, in this paper we essentially demonstrate a comparative study of the most widely used EM field solvers in the area of nano-plasmonics: COMSOL, CST and Lumerical.