Collective electromagnetic emission from molecular layers on metal nanostructures mediated by surface plasmons

Abstract

Collective electromagnetic processes stemming from molecular emission close to complex nanostructured metal surfaces pumped at and/or near surface-plasmon resonances are theoretically investigated. A classical electrodynamics model is used to describe macroscopically the surface molecular layer emission. Generalized Fresnel coefficients are analytically obtained for planar surfaces, indeed predicting collective quenching for redshifted emission at given angles. The model is introduced into a scattering formulation based on surface integral equations in order to explore collective spontaneous emission near metallic nanoantennas and surface-enhanced Raman scattering. Frequency-shifted near-field patterns and properly defined enhancement factors are obtained that manifest collective processes and cannot be simply inferred from calculations of near fields at the pump frequency. © 2007 The American Physical Society.