Comparison between discrete dipole approximation and other modelling methods for the plasmonic response of gold nanospheres

We investigate the plasmonic response of gold nanospheres calculated using discrete dipole approximation validated against the results from other discretization methods, namely the finite-difference time-domain method and the finite-element methods. Comparisons are also made with calculations from analytical methods such as the Mie solution and the null-field method with discrete sources. We consider the nanoparticle interacting with the incident field both in free space and sitting on a planar substrate. In the latter case, discrete dipole approximation with surface interaction is used; this includes the interaction with the ‘image dipoles’ using Sommerfeld integration.