Polarization and plasmon effects in nanowire arrays

The charge distribution and dipole moment in a system of interacting metallic nanowires in external electric field were found and used to calculate the plasmon energies governing optical properties of these nanostructures. The in-line alignment of nanowires caused a redshift of the plasmon peak while their parallel arrangement caused a blueshift. The dependence of these shifts on the separation between nanowires was calculated and compared with the recent experimental data on linear chains of Au nanorods. (C) 2007 American Institute of Physics.