Multipole methods for nanoantennas design: applications to Yagi-Uda configurations

We present a detailed formalism allowing analytical calculations of the radiative properties of nanoantennas. This formalism does not rely on dipole approximations and utilizes multipolar multiple-scattering theory. The improvement in both accuracy and calculation speeds offered by this formulation provides significant advantages that are used in this work to study Yagi-Uda-type nanoantennas. We provide a study that questions the necessity of the reflector particle in nanoantennas. (C) 2011 Optical Society of America