Plasmonic abilities of gold and silver spherical nanoantennas in terms of size dependent multipolar resonance frequencies and plasmon damping rates

Absorbing and emitting optical properties of a spherical plasmonic nanoantenna are described in terms of the size dependent resonance frequencies and damping rates of the multipolar surface plasmons (SP). We provide the plasmon size characteristics for gold and silver spherical particles up to the large size retardation regime where the plasmon radiative damping is significant. We underline the role of the radiation damping in comparison with the energy dissipation damping in formation of receiving and transmitting properties of a plasmonic particle. The size dependence of both: the multipolar SP resonance frequencies and corresponding damping rates can be a convenient tool in tailoring the characteristics of plasmonic nanoantennas for given application. Such characteristics enable to control an operation frequency of a plasmonic nanoantenna and to change the operation range from the spectrally broad to spectrally narrow and vice versa. It is also possible to switch between particle receiving (enhanced absorption) and emitting (enhanced scattering) abilities. Changing the polarization geometry of observation it is possible to effectively separate the dipole and the quadrupole plasmon radiation from all the non-plasmonic contributions to the scattered light.