The Purcell effect of a nanoshell dimer on the fluorescence of a single molecule placed within the dimer’s gap is studied. The numerical results show that the nanoshell dimer acts as an antenna, making the energy transfer from an excited molecule to the dimer more efficient, and as a lowpass filter for the radiation of fluorescence to the far field. Moreover, the enhancement factor of a nanoshell dimer on the fluorescence is much higher than that of a solid Au dimer in the longer-wavelength regime.

This study theoretically investigates the wavelength-dependent longitudinal polarizability of a gold nanorod (GNR) irradiated by a polarized laser beam. The resultant optical torque in terms of the Maxwell stress tensor was analyzed quantitatively using the multiple multipole method. Our results indicate that the real part of the longitudinal polarizability of GNR can be either positive or negative, leading to the parallel or perpendicular modes, respectively. For the parallel and perpendicular modes, the long axis of GNR is rotated to align parallel and perpendicular, respectively, to the polarization direction of the illuminating light. The turning point between these two modes, depending on the aspect ratio (AR) and the size of GNR, nearly coincides with the longitudinal surface plasmon resonance (LSPR). The perpendicular mode ranges from the transverse SPR to LSPR, and the range of the parallel mode is broadband from LSPR to the near infrared regime. Owing to that a larger optical torque and less plasmonic heating are of concern, an efficiency of optical torque is defined to evaluate the performance of different wavelengths. Analysis results indicate that lasers with wavelength in the perpendicular mode are applicable to rotate and align a GNR of a higher AR. For example, the laser of 785 nm (the perpendicular mode) is superior to that of 1064 nm (the parallel mode, off-resonant from LSPR of 955 nm) for rotating a GNR of AR = 4 and radius 20 nm with an orientation of 45° with respect to the laser polarization.

The wavelength-dependent optical torques provided by a circularly polarized (CP) plane wave driving Au nanorod (NR) and nanowire (NW) to rotate constantly were studied theoretically. Using the multiple multipole method, the resultant torque in terms of Maxwell’s stress tensor was analyzed. Numerical results show that the optical torque spectrum is in accordance with the absorption spectrum of Au NR/NW. Under the same fluence, the maximum optical torque occurs at the longitudinal surface plasmon resonance (LSPR) of Au NR/NW, accompanied by a severe plasmonic heating. The rotation direction of the light-driven NR/NW depends on the handedness of CP light. In contrast, the optical torque exerted on Au NR/NW illuminated by a linearly polarized light is null at LSPR. Due to the plasmonic effect, the optical torque on Au NR/NW by CP light is two orders of magnitude larger than that on a dielectric NR/NW of the same size. The steady-state rotation of NR/NW in water, resulting from the balance of optical torque and viscous torque, was also discussed. Our finding shed some light on manipulating a CP light-driven Au NR/NW as a rotating nanomotor for a variety of applications in optofluidics and biophysics.

Surface plasmon resonance (SPR) of a single metallic nanoparticle is analyzed and simulated via multi-multipole method for 3D problems. The excitation, at optical frequencies, of the SPR leads to a...