Simulations of Optical Measurements of Vibrating Metal Nanoparticle

Optical measurements of noble metal nanoparticles have been widely used to elucidate the mechanical properties of nanoparticle vibrations and their surrounding medium. Simulations of these experiments have the ability to further probe the contributing factors of these results. We have developed a central application for simulating both transient absorption and acoustic Raman scattering experiments of noble metal nanoparticles of arbitrary shape, size, composition, and surrounding medium. Developed with COMSOL Multiphysics' finite element solver, this application can be used to predict previously unmeasured sample configurations and interpret the results of previous experiments. We show that our simulations of transient absorption and acoustic Raman scattering measurements accurately produce experimental results for various studied geometries and report simulations of previously unmeasured nanoparticle shapes.