A new closed-form solution to light scattering by spherical nanoshells

Abstract

Light or electromagnetic wave scattered by a single sphere or a coated sphere has been considered as a classic Mie theory. There have been some further extensions that were made further based on the Mie theory. Recently, a closed-form analytical model of the scattering cross section of a single nanoshell has been considered. The present paper is documented further, based on the work in 2006 by Alam and Massoud, to derive another different closed-form solution to the problem of light scattered by the nanoshells using polynomials of up to order 6. Validation is made by comparing the present closed-form solution to the exact Mie scattering solution and also to the other closed-form solution by Alam and Massoud. This study is found to be, however, more generalized and also more accurate for the coated spheres of either tiny/small or medium sizes than that of Alam and Massoud. Therefore, the derived formulas can be used for accurately characterizing both surface plasmon resonances of nanoparticles (of small sizes) or nanoantenna near-field properties (of medium sizes comparable with half wavelength). © 2006 IEEE.