The optical properties of cascaded plasmon resonant metallic nanocomposites are investigated. Plasmon resonances and their related field distributions are numerically evaluated in two-dimensional arrays of spherical silver nanoparticles embedded in a dielectric host. The field distributions in structures with identical particle sizes indicate the presence of a largely dipolar particle response, with a small multipole resonance contribution at high frequency. However, in arrays consisting of

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... icles with dissimilar sizes, an additional coupled mode appears in which the dipole moment in adjacent particles is found to be anti-parallel. For increasing size-dissimilarity a higher electric field enhancement is observed inside the small metal nanospheres, indicative of a cascaded field enhancement effect. This effect may be used to enhance the nonlinear optical response of an effective medium composed of particles with engineered size dispersion and particle placement.