Abstract
The scattering spectra and intensity of gold nanorods placed at varied distances above gold films have been simulated and measured under various conditions, demonstrating that scattering characteristics of the nanorod-film system are highly dependent on illumination conditions. Studying the surrounding electric fields of nanorods reveals that the illumination-dependent properties of the system are induced by the interference in the nanorod-film system. Both simulations and experiments show that optimising the nanorod-film distance can greatly enhance scattering magnitudes up to similar to 20 times for certain illumination conditions. We propose an application of the studied system in facilitating photo-thermal conversion.