  The localization (confinement) of coupled plasmon modes, named as gradons,
has been studied in metal nanoparticle chains immersed in a graded dielectric
host. We exploited the time evolution of various initial wavepackets formed by
the linear combination of the coupled modes. We found an important interplay
between the localization of plasmonic gradons and the oscillation in such
graded plasmonic chains. Unlike in optical superlattices, gradient cannot
always lead to Bloch oscillations, which can only occur for wavepackets
consisting of particular types of gradons. Moreover, the wavepackets will
undergo different forms of oscillations. The correspondence can be applied to
design a variety of optical devices by steering among various oscillations.
