  Two possible mechanisms of surface plasmon (SP) oscillations damping in
metallic nanoparticles (MNPs), not connected with electron-phonon interaction
are investigated theoretically: a) the radiation damping of SP, b) resonant
coupling of SP oscillations with electronic transitions in matrix. It is shown
that the radiation damping rate is proportional to the number of electrons in
MNP and therefore this channel of energy outflow from MNP becomes essential for
relatively large particles. The investigation of second mechanism shows that
the rate of SP oscillations energy leakage from MNP dos not depend on particle
size and is fully determined by the optical characteristics of the matrix. It
is demonstrated that for very small MNPs of 3-5 nm size, where the strong 3D
size quantization effect suppresses the electron-phonon interaction, the
resonance coupling in certain cases provides an effective energy outflow.
