Theory for Nonlinear Mie-Scattering from Spherical Metal Clusters

TL;DR

This paper develops a classical electrodynamics model to analyze nonlinear Mie-scattering from spherical metal clusters, focusing on angular dependence, resonance effects, and size sensitivity, bridging small and large particle regimes.

Contribution

It provides a comprehensive theory for nonlinear Mie-scattering in intermediate-sized spherical metal clusters, extending existing models to include nonlinear effects and resonance phenomena.

Findings

Detailed analysis of forward and backward scattering patterns.

Identification of resonance effects in integrated intensities.

Enhanced particle size sensitivity due to nonlinearity.

Abstract

Using classical electrodynamics we determine the angular dependence of the light intensities radiated in second and third harmonic generation by spherical metal clusters. Forward and backward scattering is analyzed in detail. Also resonance effects in the integrated intensities are studied. Our work treats the case of intermediate cluster sizes. Thus it completes the scattering theory fo spherical clusters between Rayleigh-type analysis for small spheres and geometrical optics for spheres much larger than the wavelength for nonlinear optics. Since the particle size sensitivity of Mie-scattering is increased by nonlinearity, the results can be used to extract sizes of small particles from nonlinear optics. (submitted to Phys. Rev. B)