Optical properties of aggregated metal systems: Real metals

Abstract

In a previous paper, the simple Maxwell‐Garnett theory of aggregated metal systems was analyzed in the free‐electron regime for low damping (ω_pτ>1). Expressions were derived for the magnitude and resonance frequencies of plasma and conduction resonances as functions of particle constants and the aggregation parameter. In this paper the effect of moderate and high damping ${\mathrm{(\omega }}_p\text{τ≲1)}$ and the effect of a dielectric interparticle matrix with n > 1 is examined, and the results are compared with experiment.