Modified plasmonic response of dimer nanoantennas with nonlocal effects: From near-field enhancement to optical force.

• The local analogue model (LAM) for nonlocal effects is integrated into the generalized Mie theory (GMT) for simulating strongly coupled plasmonic nanoparticle dimer. • Both the near-field enhancement and optical force in the dimer nanoantenna are calculated. • The influence of some geometrical and material parameters are investigated and compared between classical and nonlocal models. The metallic nanoparticle dimer is a fundamental model system for enhancing and tuning localized surface plasmon resonances. In the past, it had been found that the far- and near-field optical properties of dimer antennas can be regulated by many parameters (e.g., gap, size, orientation, materials, and surrounding medium). In recent years, the quantum mechanical effects such as nonlocal screening and electron tunneling have been achieved when the gap distance in a dimer approaches 1 nm and subnanometer. In this communication, both the near-field enhancement and optical force in dimer are fully investigated and compared between classical and nonlocal models. Compared with classical theory, we found that both the resonant wavelength and peak intensity have smaller changes in nonlocal model when geometrical or material parameters changes. Besides, the extent of parameter-induced spectral changes is slightly different between near-field enhancement and optical force. These results make possible the quantitative analysis of nonlocal effects in surface-enhanced spectroscopy, nanoantennas, refractive-index sensing, surface-enhanced optical force, and quantum plasmonics. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]