Spectroscopic ellipsometry of disordered monolayers of gold nanoparticles on oxidized silicon prepared by thermal flash-annealing of thin sputtered gold films was performed taking into account depolarization and accompanied by scanning electron microscopy. It allows to compare optical properties of samples with their structure and to demonstrate that depolarization registered in far-field zone carries the information about near-field interparticle interactions. (C) 2014 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.