Size dependence of multipolar plasmon resonance frequencies and damping rates in simple metal spherical nanoparticles

Multipolar plasmon oscillation frequencies and corresponding damping rates for nanospheres formed of the simplest free-electron metals are studied. The possibility of controlling plasmon features by choosing the size and dielectric properties of the sphere surroundings is discussed. Optical properties of the studied metals are described within the Drude-Sommerfeld model of the dielectric function with effective parameters acounting for the contribution of conduction electrons and of interband transitions. No approximation is made in respect of the size of a particle; plasmon size characteristics are described rigorously. The results of our experiment on sodium nanodroplets [ 1] are compared with the oscillation frequency size dependence of dipole and quadrupole plasmon.