Radiative decay of surface plasmons on nonspherical silver particles

We have studied the radiation emitted by electron-bombarded silver particles. Electron micrographs have shown that the particles, obtained by heating thin (5 nm) silver films, were oblate (flattened) with minor axes aligned along the substrate normal. The characteristic wavelength obtained by bombarding these particles with 15-keV electrons was found to vary with angle of photon emission. We have modeled this wavelength shift as a result of the mixture of radiation from dipole and quadrupole surface-plasmon oscillations on oblate spheroids. Experimental observations of the energy, polarization, and angular distribution of the emitted radiation are in good agreement with theoretical calculations