Interaction of spherical nanoparticles with a highly focused beam of light

Official URL: http://www.mrs.org/s_mrs/sec_subscribe.asp?CID=11323&DID=207595&action=detail

Interaction of a highly focused beam of light with spherical nanoparticles is investigated for various incident field polarizations. First, an analytical solution is obtained to calculate the interaction of a highly focused beam of light with a spherical particle. To accurately express the incident electric field near the focus of an aplanatic lens, the technique established by Richards and Wolf is used. Using this analytical solution, electric field distributions of various spherical nanoparticles made of silver are investigated for highly focused linearly and radially polarized beams. The effect of the half angle of the focused beam is investigated. In addition a three-dimensional finite element method based solution is obtained and compared with the analytical solution for problems involving a highly focused beam of light interacting with a spherical particle.