Optical Properties of Metal Nanoclusters--Theory

An introduction to the theoretical description of the optical properties of metal nanoclusters and nanostructures is presented, divided into two parts. The first part is devoted to the methodology, the most appropriate depending the system size: classical electrodynamics for large systems and quantum mechanics for small to medium-sized systems. The second part describes a few applications and representative examples ranging from small bare clusters to large protected metal ones, with the goal of highlighting the most relevant concepts and physics involved.