Modeling and Simulation of Plasmonic Nanoparticles Using Finite-Difference Time-Domain Method: A Review

Abstract

In recent years, plasmonic nanoparticles are widely used in a wide range of applications including, biomedicine, spectroscopy, catalysis and energy harvesting. The properties of these particles are due to the interaction of these particles with electromagnetic irradiation that gives rise to the localized surface plasmons that are collective oscillations of their surface conduction electrons. This interaction influences its light absorption and scattering and thus, the particle color. Simulation of particle plasmons can be done by solving Maxwells equations for metallic nanoparticles embedded in a dielectric environment. One of the approaches to solve Maxwells equation is by Finite Difference Time Domain (FDTD) approach. Since FDTD is a time domain approach, the response for a wide range of frequencies can be obtained with a single simulation. In this paper we propose to review the application of FDTD in the simulation and modeling of various plasmonic nanoparticles.