Localized surface plasmon resonance in silver nanoparticles: Atomistic first-principles time-dependent density-functional theory calculations

We observe using ab initio methods that localized surface plasmon resonances in icosahedral silver nanoparticles enter the asymptotic region already between diameters of 1 and 2 nm, converging close to the classical quasistatic limit around 3.4 eV. We base the observation on time-dependent density-functional theory simulations of the icosahedral silver clusters Ag$_{55}$ (1.06 nm), Ag$_{147}$ (1.60 nm), Ag$_{309}$ (2.14 nm), and Ag$_{561}$ (2.68 nm). The simulation method combines the adiabatic GLLB-SC exchange-correlation functional with real time propagation in an atomic orbital basis set using the projector-augmented wave method. The method has been implemented for the electron structure…