MNPBEM - A Matlab toolbox for the simulation of plasmonic nanoparticles

Abstract

MNPBEM is a Matlab toolbox for the simulation of metallic nanoparticles (MNP), using a boundary element method (BEM) approach. The main purpose of the toolbox is to solve Maxwell's equations for a dielectric environment where bodies with homogeneous and isotropic dielectric functions are separated by abrupt interfaces. Although the approach is in principle suited for arbitrary body sizes and photon energies, it is tested (and probably works best) for metallic nanoparticles with sizes ranging from a few to a few hundreds of nanometers, and for frequencies in the optical and near-infrared regime. The toolbox has been implemented with Matlab classes. These classes can be easily combined, which has the advantage that one can adapt the simulation programs flexibly for various applications.