The dipolar plasmon modes of a small metallic sphere

We consider here a treatment of the dipolar plasmon of a small metallic sphere, for which the radial extension of the surface profile is small compared with the radius of the sphere. We obtain the eigenvalues and damping by solving the classical equations for a non-uniform system. The theory is applicable also to the driven response. We compare our results with those recently reported by Apell and Ljungbert.