Localized surface plasmon resonances of a metal nanoring

Using the linear combination of atomic orbitals real-time-propagation rt-TDDFT technique (LCAO-rt-TDDFT) and transition contribution maps, we study the optical and plasmonic features of a metal nanoring (made up of sodium atoms) with respect to the modulation in the ring thickness from a sharp edge (one-atom-thick) to a flat edge (four-atoms-thick). The birth of the localized surface plasmon resonance was accessed by many factors including the number of contributing electron-hole transitions, the relative strengths of these contributions, and the nature of the induced charge density oscillation. We reveal that the occurrence of a large number of contributing electron-hole transitions to an absorption peak cannot be treated as an indicator of plasmonicity. Nonetheless, plasmonicity can be accessed from the transition contribution map (occurrence of many spots with strong contributions and distributed on a large domain of energy) and from the profile of the induced charge density. Our results are useful for designing ultra-small plasmonic devices based on metal nanorings as building blocks.