High Temperature Nanoplasmonics: The Key Role of Nonlinear Effects

In this work we show the effect of high temperature on the plasmonic properties of metallic nanorods. Within this context, the dielectric function of metal has been modified to keep into account both the electron-electron and electron-phonon temperature dependent scattering mechanisms. In fact, the mentioned damping processes are very sensible to temperature variation. It is found that the damping modifications due to temperature change substantially modify both the near and far field optical response of metallic nanorods. Furthermore, the response alteration can be very different depending on the rod aspect ratio, suggesting the need of accurate investigations when metallic nanostructures are to be employed within high-temperature environments or under high intensity irradiation. In this regard, by taking into account different nanorods aspect ratio and incident powers, we provide detailed calculations showing the error committed in evaluating absorption, scattering efficiencies, and near-field enhancement if the temperature dependence effect is neglected.