The surface plasmon scattering patterns of gold nanoparticles and agglomaretes

Metallic nanoparticles display considerably different optical properties than those of their bulk counterparts. They have long been of interest in several novel applications, from colored glass production of medieval times to molecular-level sensors of today Recently, there has been significant interest in characterization of such small particles via surface plasmons, for example for monitoring of the actual self-assembly purposes. For such characterization, we need scattering patterns by different type of particles and agglomerates on or near the surface. Here we present a methodology to predict the required scattering patterns of single particles and agglomerates on or near a surface subjected to surface plasmon waves. We investigate the effect of size, shape and orientation of gold nano particles on their scattering patterns both in the visible spectrum and at resonance wavelengths. The results show that the normalized scattering matrix elements (M-ij) at certain observation angles and incident wavelengths provide significant information to monitor self-assembly process of gold nanoparticles on a gold substrate.