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We investigate the role of material loss and mode volume of plasmonic nanostructures on strong plasmon-exciton coupling. We find that the field enhancement, and therefore loss, is not important for the magnitude of the Rabi splitting as such, but instead it is determined by the mode volume. Nevertheless, for reaching true strong coupling condition, that is, coupling greater than any dissipation, it is important to compromise losses. We also show that using such popular geometries as a dimer of two spheres or bow-tie nanoantennas, does not allow compressing the mode volume much in comparison to a single nanoparticle case, except for very narrow gaps, but rather it allows for efficient extraction of the mode out of the metal thus making it more accessible for excitons to interact with. Even more efficient mode extraction is achieved when high refractive index dielectric is placed in the gap. Our findings may find practical use for quantum plasmonics applications. (C) 2016 Optical Society of America
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