CORRELATING SINGLE-MOLECULE SERS STATISTICS TO PLASMONIC NANOCLUSTER STRUCTURE AND NEAR-FIELD PROPERTIES

Near-field properties due to surface plasmon excitation is a key element for different applications of metal nanoparticles, such as surface-enhanced Raman scattering (SERS). Therefore, a characterization of such properties is fundamental for the correct interpretation of experimental results, such as the strong fluctuation of intensities observed at low analyte concentrations, especially at single-molecule detection level. In this paper, we investigate, by classical electrodynamics simulations, the link between the near-field properties of metal nanoclusters and the intensity distribution that...