# Mie Plasmons: Modes Volumes, Quality Factors, and Coupling Strengths (Purcell Factor) to a Dipolar Emitter

Authors: G. Colas des Francs; S. Derom; R. Vincent; A. Bouhelier; A. Dereux
Journal: International Journal of Optics
 (2012)

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## Abstract

Using either quasistatic approximation or exact Mie expansion, we characterize the localized surface plasmons supported by a metallic spherical nanoparticle. We estimate the quality factorQn and define the effective volume Vn of the nth mode in such a way that coupling strength with a neighbouring dipolar emitter is proportional to the ratio Qn/Vn (Purcell factor). The role of Joule losses, far-field scattering, and mode confinement in the coupling mechanism is introduced and discussed with simple physical understanding, with particular attention paid to energy conservation.


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## Body

## 1. Introduction

Metallic nanoparticles support localized surface plasmonpolaritons (SPP) strongly confined at the metal surface ensuring efficient electromagnetic coupling with neighbouring materials, offering a variety of applications such as surface-enhanced spectroscopies [1, 2], photochemistry [3], or optical nanoantennas [4]. This also opens the way towards control of light emission at the nanoscale [5–10]. The ratio Q/Veff is generally used to quantify the coupling strength between a dipolar emitter and a cavity mode (polariton). Q and Veff refers to the mode quality factor and effective volume, respectively. High ratio Q/Veff may lead to strong coupling regime with characteristics Rabi oscillations revealing cycles of energy exchange between the emitter and the cavity. In the weak coupling regime, the emitter energy dissipation into the cavity mode is nonreversible and follows the Purcell factor:(1)γnBγ0=34π2(λnB)3QVeff,
where γ is the emitter spontaneous decay rate into the cavity compared to its free-space value γ0, nB is the optical index inside the cavity, and λ is the emission wavelength. Spontaneous emission rate in complex systems follows the more general Fermi’s golden rule that expresses γ as a function of the density of electromagnetic mode [11]. However, for describing the coupling to a cavity mode, the Purcell factor is usually preferred since it clearly introduces the cavity resonance quality factor Q and the mode extension Veff on which coupling remains efficient, bringing therefore a clear physical understanding of the coupling process.In this context, we propose to determine the quality factors and effective volumes of localized SPPs supported by a metallic nanosphere. Indeed, these quantities are useful parameters to understand and evaluate the coupling mechanisms between dipolar emitters and plasmonic nanostructures [12, 13]. This would help for achieving strong coupling regime [14, 15] or for designing plasmonic nanolasers [16–18]. We have chosen a spherical particle, a highly symmetrical system, since it is fully analytical and simple expressions can be derived with clear physical meaning [19–23]. Moreover, our results could be extended to more complex structures [24, 25].In Section2, we focus on the dipolar mode and present in details the derivation of its quality factor and effective volume. We extend our approach to each mode of the particle in Section 3. Finally, we discuss the coupling efficiency to one of the particle modes in the last section. For the sake of simplicity, all the analytical expressions are derived assuming a particle in air and dipolar emitter perpendicular to the particle surface. The generalisation to arbitrary emitter orientation and a background medium of optical index nB is provided in the appendix. Exact calculations presented in the main text using Mie expansion correctly include both the background medium and dipolar orientation.


## 2. Dipolar Mode

We first characterize the dipolar mode of a spherical particle. For sphere radiusR small compared to the excitation wavelength λ=2πc/ω, the electric field is considered uniform over the metallic particle. The metallic particle is polarized by the incident electric field E0 and behaves as a dipole
(2)p(1)(ω)=4πϵ0α1(ω)E0,(3)α1(ω)=ϵm(ω)-1ϵm(ω)+2R3,
where α1 is the nanoparticle quasistatic (dipolar) polarisability and ϵm is the metal dielectric constant. The dipole plasmon resonance appears at ω1 such that ϵm(ω1)+2=0. In case of Drude metal, the dipolar resonance is ω1=ωp/3 with ωp the bulk metal plasma angular frequency. However, expression (3) does not satisfy the optical theorem (energy conservation). It is wellknown that this apparent paradox is easily overcome by taking into account the finite size of the particle and leads to define the effective polarisability [26]:(4)α1eff=[1-i2k33α1]-1α1,(k=2πλ).
The corrective term (2k3α1/3) is the so-called radiative reaction correction and microscopically originates from the radiation emitted by the charges oscillations induced inside the nanoparticle by the excitation field [27].The dipolar polarisability presents a simple shape near the resonance if the metallic dielectric constant follows Drude model [20] (ωp and Γabs refers to metal plasma frequency an Ohmic loss rate, resp.) (for the sake of clarity, we use lowercase notation γ for the emitter decay rates and uppercase Γ for the quantities associated with the metallic particle);(5)ϵm=1-ωp2ω2+iΓabsω;(6)α1eff(ω)~ω1ω12(ω1-ω)-iΓ1R3,(7)Γ1=Γabs+2(k1R)3ω13,(k1=ω1c).
where Γ1 is the decay rate of the particle dipolar mode and includes both the Joule (Γabs) and radiative [Γ1rad=2(k1R)3ω1/3] losses rates.


### 2.1. Quality Factor

The dipolar response can be described by either the extinction efficiencyQext, proportional to Im(α1), or scattering efficiency Qscatt, proportional to |α1|2, and therefore follows a Lorentzian profile centered at ω1 and with a full width at half maximum (FWHM) Δω1=Γ1:(8)Qext(ω)=4kR2Im⁡[α1eff(ω)]∝ω11(ω-ω1)2+(Γ1/2)2,Qscatt(ω)=83R2k4|α1eff(ω)|2∝ω11(ω-ω1)2+(Γ1/2)2.
The quality factor of this resonance is therefore(9)Q1=ω1Γ1.As an example, we consider aR=25nm silver sphere in air. The Drude model parameters are ℏωp=9.1eV and ℏΓabs=18meV that lead to a resonance peak at ℏω1=5.2eV (ω1=7.98×1015Hz) and radiative energy ℏΓ1rad=1eV. The quality factor is then Q1=5. Note that the metal optical properties are better described when including the bound electrons in the Drude model: ϵm=ϵ∞-ωp2/(ω2+iΓabsω), (ϵ∞=3.7 for silver, see also the appendix). In that case, we obtain ℏω1=3.74eV (ω1=5.7×1015Hz), ℏΓ1rad=0.13eV,  and Q1=24.Although Drude model qualitatively explains the shape of the resonance, a more representative value of the quality factor can only be determined using tabulated data for the dielectric constant of the metal [28]. The extinction efficiencies associated with the dipolar resonance are represented in Figure 1. For silver particle (Figure 1(a)), the extinction efficiency closely follows a Lorentzian shape, as expected, with a quality factor Q1=21, in good agreement with the value obtained using Drude model (with the contribution of the bound electrons included). In case of gold, the resonance profile is not well defined due to interband transitions for ω>4·1015Hz but a quality factor of 7 can be estimated (Figure 1(b)). Figure 1(c) represents the extinction efficiency for a gold particle embedded in polymethylmethacrylate (PMMA) into which metallic particles are routinely dispersed. This leads to a small redshift of a resonance, avoiding therefore the resonance disturbance by interband absorption, and we recover partly the Lorentzian profile [29].Extinction efficiency for the dipolar resonance calculated keeping only the dipolar mode (n=1) in the Mie expansion and using experimental value for the metal dielectric constant [28]. (a) Silver particle in air. (b) Gold particle in air. (c) Gold particle in PMMA (optical index nB=1.5). The particle radius is R=25nm for each case. Fit refers to a Lorentzian fit using parameters indicated on the figure.
(a)(b)(c)


### 2.2. Effective Volume

Coupling rate of a dipolar emitter to a dipolar particle expresses for very short emitter-particle distancesd (z0=R+d is the distance to the particle center) as [19–21](10)γ1⊥γ0~6k3z06Im⁡(α1),
for a dipole emitter orientation perpendicular to the nanoparticle surface. Using (6), we obtain, in case of a dipolar emitter emission tuned to the dipolar particle resonance (λ=λ1=2πc/ω1)(11)γ1⊥γ0~ω16ω1R3k13z06Γ1~34π2λ13R3πz06Q1.
In order to determine the dipolar mode effective volume, we now identify the coupling rate γ/γ0 to the Purcell factor ((1), assuming nB=1), so that we obtain(12)V1⊥=πz06R3,
in full agreement with expression recently derived by Greffet et al. by defining the optical impedance of the nanoparticle antenna [30]. For a R=25nm radius sphere in air, we estimate the mode effective volume V1⊥=3.7×10-4μm3=(72nm)3 for an emitter 10 nm away from the particle surface (z0=35nm).Unlike here, usual definition of the mode effective volume does not include the emitter position. For instance, in case of cavity quantum electrodynamics (cQED) applications, it can be expressed asVeff=∫ϵ|E(r)|2dr/max(ϵ|E(r)|2), so that it directly characterizes the mode extension. However, in that case, Purcell factor expression (1) is only valid for an emitter located at the cavity center where the mode-emitter coupling is maximum (mode antinode). In close analogy with the definition used in cQED, we derive later another expression for the SPP effective volume, independent of the emitter position (see (22), and the discussion below).


## 2.1. Quality Factor

The dipolar response can be described by either the extinction efficiencyQext, proportional to Im(α1), or scattering efficiency Qscatt, proportional to |α1|2, and therefore follows a Lorentzian profile centered at ω1 and with a full width at half maximum (FWHM) Δω1=Γ1:(8)Qext(ω)=4kR2Im⁡[α1eff(ω)]∝ω11(ω-ω1)2+(Γ1/2)2,Qscatt(ω)=83R2k4|α1eff(ω)|2∝ω11(ω-ω1)2+(Γ1/2)2.
The quality factor of this resonance is therefore(9)Q1=ω1Γ1.As an example, we consider aR=25nm silver sphere in air. The Drude model parameters are ℏωp=9.1eV and ℏΓabs=18meV that lead to a resonance peak at ℏω1=5.2eV (ω1=7.98×1015Hz) and radiative energy ℏΓ1rad=1eV. The quality factor is then Q1=5. Note that the metal optical properties are better described when including the bound electrons in the Drude model: ϵm=ϵ∞-ωp2/(ω2+iΓabsω), (ϵ∞=3.7 for silver, see also the appendix). In that case, we obtain ℏω1=3.74eV (ω1=5.7×1015Hz), ℏΓ1rad=0.13eV,  and Q1=24.Although Drude model qualitatively explains the shape of the resonance, a more representative value of the quality factor can only be determined using tabulated data for the dielectric constant of the metal [28]. The extinction efficiencies associated with the dipolar resonance are represented in Figure 1. For silver particle (Figure 1(a)), the extinction efficiency closely follows a Lorentzian shape, as expected, with a quality factor Q1=21, in good agreement with the value obtained using Drude model (with the contribution of the bound electrons included). In case of gold, the resonance profile is not well defined due to interband transitions for ω>4·1015Hz but a quality factor of 7 can be estimated (Figure 1(b)). Figure 1(c) represents the extinction efficiency for a gold particle embedded in polymethylmethacrylate (PMMA) into which metallic particles are routinely dispersed. This leads to a small redshift of a resonance, avoiding therefore the resonance disturbance by interband absorption, and we recover partly the Lorentzian profile [29].Extinction efficiency for the dipolar resonance calculated keeping only the dipolar mode (n=1) in the Mie expansion and using experimental value for the metal dielectric constant [28]. (a) Silver particle in air. (b) Gold particle in air. (c) Gold particle in PMMA (optical index nB=1.5). The particle radius is R=25nm for each case. Fit refers to a Lorentzian fit using parameters indicated on the figure.
(a)(b)(c)


## 2.2. Effective Volume

Coupling rate of a dipolar emitter to a dipolar particle expresses for very short emitter-particle distancesd (z0=R+d is the distance to the particle center) as [19–21](10)γ1⊥γ0~6k3z06Im⁡(α1),
for a dipole emitter orientation perpendicular to the nanoparticle surface. Using (6), we obtain, in case of a dipolar emitter emission tuned to the dipolar particle resonance (λ=λ1=2πc/ω1)(11)γ1⊥γ0~ω16ω1R3k13z06Γ1~34π2λ13R3πz06Q1.
In order to determine the dipolar mode effective volume, we now identify the coupling rate γ/γ0 to the Purcell factor ((1), assuming nB=1), so that we obtain(12)V1⊥=πz06R3,
in full agreement with expression recently derived by Greffet et al. by defining the optical impedance of the nanoparticle antenna [30]. For a R=25nm radius sphere in air, we estimate the mode effective volume V1⊥=3.7×10-4μm3=(72nm)3 for an emitter 10 nm away from the particle surface (z0=35nm).Unlike here, usual definition of the mode effective volume does not include the emitter position. For instance, in case of cavity quantum electrodynamics (cQED) applications, it can be expressed asVeff=∫ϵ|E(r)|2dr/max(ϵ|E(r)|2), so that it directly characterizes the mode extension. However, in that case, Purcell factor expression (1) is only valid for an emitter located at the cavity center where the mode-emitter coupling is maximum (mode antinode). In close analogy with the definition used in cQED, we derive later another expression for the SPP effective volume, independent of the emitter position (see (22), and the discussion below).


## 3. Multipolar Modes

If the excitation field is generated by a dipolar emitter (fluorescent molecules, quantum dots,…), it cannot be considered uniform anymore and the dipolar approximation fails. One needs therefore to consider the coupling strength to high-order modes (Figure2). Here again, we discuss the mode quality factors and volume first using quasistatic approximation and then discuss their quantitative behaviour using exact Mie theory.(a) Dipolar and (b) quadrupolar mode profiles of aR=25nm silver sphere, embedded in PMMA calculated using exact Mie expansion. Silver dielectric constant is taken from [28]. Color and arrows refer to electric field intensity and vector respectively.
(a)(b)Thenth multipole tensor moment of the metallic particle is given by(13)p(n)=4πϵ0(2n-1)!!αn∇n-1E0,(14)αn=n(ϵm-1)nϵm+(n+1)R(2n+1),
with (2n+1)!!=1×3×5×⋯×(2n+1) and ∇ is the vector differential operator. As discussed above, the dipole moment p(1)=4πϵ0α1E0 is the unique mode excited in an uniform field. However, the dipolar emitter near field behaves as 1/r3 and strongly varies spatially so that higher modes can be excited in the particle.For a Drude metal, thenth resonance appears at ωn=ωpn/(2n+1). Therefore, higher-order modes accumulate near ω∞=ωp/2. Moreover, as discussed for the dipolar case, quasistatic expression of the nth mode polarisability (14) does not obey energy conservation. Applying the optical theorem, we recently extend the radiative correction to all the spherical particles modes [22]. This leads to(15)αneff=[1-i(n+1)k2n+1n(2n-1)!!(2n+1)!!αn]-1αn.


### 3.1. Quality Factors

It is now a simple matter to generalize the dipolar mode analysis reported in the previous section to all the particle modes. Thenth mode polarisability can be approximated near resonance. A simple expression for the polarisability is achieved considering a Drude metal:(16)αneff~ωnωn2(ωn-ω)-iΓnR2n+1,Γn=Γabs+Γnrad,Γnrad=ωn(n+1)(knR)2n+1n(2n-1)!!(2n+1)!!,(kn=ωnc),
where Γn is the total decay rate of the nth mode, that includes both ohmic losses and radiative scattering. As expected, for a given mode n, the radiative scattering rate Γnrad∝R2n+1 increases with the particle size since it couples more efficiently to the far field. For instance, we obtain ℏΓ2rad=39meV (ℏΓ2rad=1.8meV  with ϵ∞=3.7) for the quadrupolar mode of a R=25nm silver particle in air. As expected, the radiative rate of the quadrupolar is strongly reduced compared to the dipolar mode.The quality factor associated with thenth mode is therefore(17)Qn=ωnΓn=ωnΓabs+Γnrad.Figure3 details the quality factor of the two first modes of a silver sphere in PMMA using tabulated value for ϵm. The quadrupolar mode presents a quality factor almost 5 times higher than the dipolar mode since it has limited radiative losses. Indeed, quadrupolar mode poorly couples to the far field. Finally, similar Q values (Qn≈50) are obtained for all the higher modes (n≥3). Here again, assuming a Drude metal and in the quasistatic approximation, we qualitatively explains this result. Actually, Q factors of high-order modes are absorption loss limited (Γnrad≪Γabs, so called dark modes) and tend to Q∞=ω∞/Γabs. However this overestimates the mode quality factor (Q∞≈207) as compared to the value deduced using tabulated value for ϵm and exact Mie expansion.(a) Extinction efficiency of aR=25nm silver sphere embedded in PMMA, calculated using full Mie expansion. (b) Contribution of the dipolar (n=1) and quadrupolar (n=2) mode to the full extinction efficiency. The quality factor is indicated for each mode. Dielectric constant for silver is taken from [28].
(a)(b)


### 3.2. Effective Volumes

Last, we express thetotal coupling strength of a dipolar emitter to the spherical metallic particle for very short separation distances (kz0≪1) [21, 22]:(18)γtot⊥γ0≈321(kz0)3∑n=1∞(n+1)2z0(2n+1)Im⁡(αneff),
so that the coupling strength to the nth mode is easily deduced as(19)γn⊥γ0≈321(kz0)3(n+1)2z0(2n+1)Im⁡(αneff),~ωn32R2n+1(knz0)3(n+1)2z0(2n+1)Qn,
where we have used approximated expression (16) for the nth polarisability. The mode effective volume is then straightforwardly deduced from comparison to the Purcell factor  (1)(20)Vn⊥=4πz02n+4(n+1)2R2n+1.
We obtain for instance quadrupole effective volume V2⊥=4πz08/(9R5)=3.2×10-4μm3=(68nm)3 for an emitter 10 nm away from a 25 nm radius metallic particle in air. The calculated effective volumes of the three first modes are shown on Figure 4. At long distance, the smaller effective volume (most efficient coupling to an emitter) is associated with the dipole mode since it presents the largest extension. When the emitter-particle distance decreases the coupling strength to the quadrupolar (d≤12nm), then hexapolar (d≤10nm) mode becomes stronger as revealed by their lower effective volume. Most efficient coupling between an emitter and one of the particle modes obviously occurs at contact since plasmons modes are confined near the particle surface.Figure 4
Effective volume of the dipole (V1), quadrupole (V2) and hexapole (V3) modes of a R=25nm sphere as a function of the emitter-particle distance. The emitter is perpendicular to the particle surface.Finally, it is worthwhile to note that mode effective volume is generally defined independently on the particle-emitter distance so that it gives an estimation of the mode extension. This is done by evaluating the maximum effective volume available and for a random emitter orientation. In case of localized SPP, this is achieved for contact (z0=R). Since the decay rate of a randomly oriented emitter expresses γ=(γ⊥+2γ∥)/3, it comes(21)1Vn=13Vn⊥(R)+23Vn∥(R),(22)Vn=9(2n+1)(n+1)V0,
where V0=4πR3/3 is the metallic sphere volume and Vn∥ refers to a dipole parallel to the sphere surface (see (B.4) in Appendix B, with ϵB=1). Dipolar and quadrupolar mode volumes are V1=3/2V0 and V2=3/5V0, respectively. The expression (22), derived for a Drude metal, quantifies an extremely important property of localized SPPs; their effective volume does not depend on the wavelength and is of the order of the particle volume. Metallic nanoparticles therefore support localized modes of strongly subwavelength extension. Highest-order modes have negligible extension (Vn→0 for n→∞, see Figure 5). As a comparison, photonics cavity modes are generally limited by the diffraction limit so that their effective volume is at best of the order of (λ/nB)3 (see [31]). Nevertheless, the extremely reduced SPP volume is achieved at the expense of the mode quality factor. It should be noticed that a low-quality factor indicates a large cavity resonance FWHM so that emitter-SPP coupling can occur on a large spectrum range.Figure 5
Normalized effective volumeVn/V0 as a function of mode order.Note that mode effective volume is generally defined by its energy confinementVeff=∫ϵ|E(r)|2dr/max(ϵ|E(r)|2) [12]. Khurgin and Sun used this definition and obtained [32] Vn=6V0/(n+1)2 that is in agreement with our expression for the dipolar mode volume (V1=1.5V0) but leads to slightly different values for other modes (e.g., V2≈0.67V0 instead of V2=0.60V0). Recently, Koenderink showed that defining the mode volume on the basis of energy density could lead to underestimating the Purcell factor near plasmonic nanostructures [33] (however, he defined the coupling rate to the whole system rather than considering the coupling into a single mode). Oppositely, we adopt here a phenomenological approach where the mode volume is defined so that Purcell factor remains valid. Nevertheless, both methods lead to very similar results for the effective volumes of localized SPPs supported by a nanosphere. Since mode volume is generally a simple way to qualitatively characterize the mode extension, expressions derived here or by Sun et al. could be used.


## 3.1. Quality Factors

It is now a simple matter to generalize the dipolar mode analysis reported in the previous section to all the particle modes. Thenth mode polarisability can be approximated near resonance. A simple expression for the polarisability is achieved considering a Drude metal:(16)αneff~ωnωn2(ωn-ω)-iΓnR2n+1,Γn=Γabs+Γnrad,Γnrad=ωn(n+1)(knR)2n+1n(2n-1)!!(2n+1)!!,(kn=ωnc),
where Γn is the total decay rate of the nth mode, that includes both ohmic losses and radiative scattering. As expected, for a given mode n, the radiative scattering rate Γnrad∝R2n+1 increases with the particle size since it couples more efficiently to the far field. For instance, we obtain ℏΓ2rad=39meV (ℏΓ2rad=1.8meV  with ϵ∞=3.7) for the quadrupolar mode of a R=25nm silver particle in air. As expected, the radiative rate of the quadrupolar is strongly reduced compared to the dipolar mode.The quality factor associated with thenth mode is therefore(17)Qn=ωnΓn=ωnΓabs+Γnrad.Figure3 details the quality factor of the two first modes of a silver sphere in PMMA using tabulated value for ϵm. The quadrupolar mode presents a quality factor almost 5 times higher than the dipolar mode since it has limited radiative losses. Indeed, quadrupolar mode poorly couples to the far field. Finally, similar Q values (Qn≈50) are obtained for all the higher modes (n≥3). Here again, assuming a Drude metal and in the quasistatic approximation, we qualitatively explains this result. Actually, Q factors of high-order modes are absorption loss limited (Γnrad≪Γabs, so called dark modes) and tend to Q∞=ω∞/Γabs. However this overestimates the mode quality factor (Q∞≈207) as compared to the value deduced using tabulated value for ϵm and exact Mie expansion.(a) Extinction efficiency of aR=25nm silver sphere embedded in PMMA, calculated using full Mie expansion. (b) Contribution of the dipolar (n=1) and quadrupolar (n=2) mode to the full extinction efficiency. The quality factor is indicated for each mode. Dielectric constant for silver is taken from [28].
(a)(b)


## 3.2. Effective Volumes

Last, we express thetotal coupling strength of a dipolar emitter to the spherical metallic particle for very short separation distances (kz0≪1) [21, 22]:(18)γtot⊥γ0≈321(kz0)3∑n=1∞(n+1)2z0(2n+1)Im⁡(αneff),
so that the coupling strength to the nth mode is easily deduced as(19)γn⊥γ0≈321(kz0)3(n+1)2z0(2n+1)Im⁡(αneff),~ωn32R2n+1(knz0)3(n+1)2z0(2n+1)Qn,
where we have used approximated expression (16) for the nth polarisability. The mode effective volume is then straightforwardly deduced from comparison to the Purcell factor  (1)(20)Vn⊥=4πz02n+4(n+1)2R2n+1.
We obtain for instance quadrupole effective volume V2⊥=4πz08/(9R5)=3.2×10-4μm3=(68nm)3 for an emitter 10 nm away from a 25 nm radius metallic particle in air. The calculated effective volumes of the three first modes are shown on Figure 4. At long distance, the smaller effective volume (most efficient coupling to an emitter) is associated with the dipole mode since it presents the largest extension. When the emitter-particle distance decreases the coupling strength to the quadrupolar (d≤12nm), then hexapolar (d≤10nm) mode becomes stronger as revealed by their lower effective volume. Most efficient coupling between an emitter and one of the particle modes obviously occurs at contact since plasmons modes are confined near the particle surface.Figure 4
Effective volume of the dipole (V1), quadrupole (V2) and hexapole (V3) modes of a R=25nm sphere as a function of the emitter-particle distance. The emitter is perpendicular to the particle surface.Finally, it is worthwhile to note that mode effective volume is generally defined independently on the particle-emitter distance so that it gives an estimation of the mode extension. This is done by evaluating the maximum effective volume available and for a random emitter orientation. In case of localized SPP, this is achieved for contact (z0=R). Since the decay rate of a randomly oriented emitter expresses γ=(γ⊥+2γ∥)/3, it comes(21)1Vn=13Vn⊥(R)+23Vn∥(R),(22)Vn=9(2n+1)(n+1)V0,
where V0=4πR3/3 is the metallic sphere volume and Vn∥ refers to a dipole parallel to the sphere surface (see (B.4) in Appendix B, with ϵB=1). Dipolar and quadrupolar mode volumes are V1=3/2V0 and V2=3/5V0, respectively. The expression (22), derived for a Drude metal, quantifies an extremely important property of localized SPPs; their effective volume does not depend on the wavelength and is of the order of the particle volume. Metallic nanoparticles therefore support localized modes of strongly subwavelength extension. Highest-order modes have negligible extension (Vn→0 for n→∞, see Figure 5). As a comparison, photonics cavity modes are generally limited by the diffraction limit so that their effective volume is at best of the order of (λ/nB)3 (see [31]). Nevertheless, the extremely reduced SPP volume is achieved at the expense of the mode quality factor. It should be noticed that a low-quality factor indicates a large cavity resonance FWHM so that emitter-SPP coupling can occur on a large spectrum range.Figure 5
Normalized effective volumeVn/V0 as a function of mode order.Note that mode effective volume is generally defined by its energy confinementVeff=∫ϵ|E(r)|2dr/max(ϵ|E(r)|2) [12]. Khurgin and Sun used this definition and obtained [32] Vn=6V0/(n+1)2 that is in agreement with our expression for the dipolar mode volume (V1=1.5V0) but leads to slightly different values for other modes (e.g., V2≈0.67V0 instead of V2=0.60V0). Recently, Koenderink showed that defining the mode volume on the basis of energy density could lead to underestimating the Purcell factor near plasmonic nanostructures [33] (however, he defined the coupling rate to the whole system rather than considering the coupling into a single mode). Oppositely, we adopt here a phenomenological approach where the mode volume is defined so that Purcell factor remains valid. Nevertheless, both methods lead to very similar results for the effective volumes of localized SPPs supported by a nanosphere. Since mode volume is generally a simple way to qualitatively characterize the mode extension, expressions derived here or by Sun et al. could be used.


## 4.β-Factor

Purcell factor quantifies the coupling strength between a quantum emitter and a (plasmon) mode but lacks information on the coupling efficiency as compared to all the other emitter relaxation channels. For the sake of clarity, it has to be mentioned that coupling strength to one SPP mode corresponds to the total emission decay rate induced by this coupling. It does not permit to distinguish radiative (γrad) and nonradiative (γNR) coupling into a single mode. This could be done by numerically cancelling the imaginary part of the metal dielectric function (see also [34] for similar discussion in case of coupling to delocalized SPPs). However, one can determine the coupling efficiency into a single mode as compared to all other modes. This coupling efficiency, or the so-called β-factor, is easily estimated in case of a spherical metallic particle since all the available channels are taken into account in the Mie expansion. Coupling efficiency into nth mode writes(23)βn=〈γn〉〈γtot〉,
where 〈γ〉=(γ⊥+2γ∥)/3 is the decay rate of a randomly oriented molecule. β-factor is represented on Figure 6 for the first three modes. A maximum efficiency of 90% can be achieved in the dipolar mode (d~10nm) and 87% into quadrupolar mode (d~15nm). The coupling efficiency into the hexapolar mode is lower (~60% around d~15nm) since it has a very low extension, as indicated in Figure 5. For very short distances, all the coupling efficiencies drop down to zero since all the higher-order modes accumulate in this region, opening numerous alternative decay channels. Moreover, it is possible to efficiently couple the emitter to either the dipolar or quadrupolar mode, by matching the emitter and mode wavelengths. This is of strong importance when designing a SPASER (or plasmon laser) [5] so that the active mode can be tuned on the dipolar or quadrupolar mode. This last spasing mode would consist of an extremely localized and ultrafast nanosource [18].Figure 6
Coupling efficiency into the dipolar (β1), quadrupolar (β2) and hexapolar (β3) mode of a R=25nm silver sphere in PMMA, calculated using exact Mie expansion. The emitter wavelength is assumed to match the considered mode. Therefore β1, β2 and β3 are calculated at λ1=435nm (dipolar resonance), λ2=387nm (quadrupolar resonance), and λ3=375nm (hexapolar resonance), respectively.


## 5. Conclusion

We explicitly determined the effective volumes for all the SPP modes supported by a metallic nanosphere. Their quality factor is also approximated in the quasistatic case or calculated using exact Mie expansion. Rather low-quality factors ranging from 10 to 100 can be achieved, associated with extremely confined effective volume of nanometric dimensions. This results in highQ/Veff ratios indicating efficient coupling strength with a quantum emitter. At the opposite to cavity quantum electrodynamics where the coupling strength is obtained on diffraction limited volumes thanks to ultrahigh Q factors, plasmonics structures allow efficient coupling on nanometric scales with reasonable Q factors, defining therefore high-bandwidth interaction. Finally, high coupling efficiencies (80%–90%) to dipolar or quadrupolar mode can be achieved and are of great interest for nanolasers realization.



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*Source: 175162-2012-02-28.xml*