Nonlocal effects on optical and molecular interactions with metallic nanoshells

Theoretical studies of the optical response of metallic nanoshells have been carried out, where quantum effects are partially accounted for through the application of a nonlocal response model for shells of mesoscopic dimensions. Both far field and near field interactions are considered, with the incident source being a plane wave and an emitting molecular dipole, respectively. It is found that these nonlocal effects can lead to significant deviations from macroscopic electrodynamic theory, for shells of ultrasmall dimensions (< 10 nm) or ultrathin thickness (similar to 1 nm), and are particularly significant for processes involving higher multipolar responses of the nanoshells. It is further concluded that these effects can still be observable, even in the presence of possibly large interfacial scattering for the free electrons in these nanoshells.