Excitation of plasmons of anisotropic nanostructures by nearby electrons

Following the discovery of the fullerene molecules, multishell cage structures and nanotubes have been produced with carbon, boron nitride, and other planar uniaxial materials. These particles which are typically a few tens of nanometers in size, present a peculiar 'in-shell' anisotropy and a hollow inner cavity. We have developed a dielectric formalism for the resolution of Maxwell's equations which takes into account these peculiarities. In the present contribution, we will emphasise the consequences of the anisotropy on the surface modes plasmon of nanoparticles. (C) 2001 Elsevier Science B.V. All rights reserved.