Nonlocal dielectric effects in core-shell nanowires

We study the optical spectra and near fields of core-shell nanowires (nanoshells), using a recently developed finite-difference method that allows for a spatially nonlocal dielectric response. We first analyze the parameters of the nonlocal model by making comparisons with related experimental data and previous theoretical work. We then investigate how nonlocal effects are dependent on nanoshell features, such as shell thickness, overall size, and the ratio of core radius to shell radius. We demonstrate that the shell thickness along the longitudinal direction of the incident light is the primary controlling factor of nonlocal effects, which appear as anomalous absorption resonances and blueshifts in the localized surface plasmon resonance (LSPR) positions, relative to local theory. In addition, we show that the amount of blueshift depends on the order of the LSPR. The optical responses of nanoshells immersed in various refractive index (RI) environments are also studied. We show that the nonlocal anomalous absorption features are relatively insensitive to RI changes, but the blueshift of the dipolar LSPR varies nonlinearly.