Plasmon

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In

The field of study and manipulation of plasmons is called plasmonics.

Derivation

The plasmon was initially proposed in 1952 by David Pines and David Bohm^[1] and was shown to arise from a Hamiltonian for the long-range electron-electron correlations.^[2]

Since plasmons are the quantization of classical plasma oscillations, most of their properties can be derived directly from Maxwell's equations.^[3]

Explanation

Plasmons can be described in the classical picture as an

The plasmon energy can often be estimated in the free electron model as

${\displaystyle E_{\rm {p}}=}$${\displaystyle \hbar }$${\displaystyle {\sqrt {\frac {ne^{2}}{m\epsilon _{0}}}}=}$${\displaystyle \hbar }$${\displaystyle \omega _{\rm {p}},}$

where ${\displaystyle n}$ is the

${\displaystyle e}$

${\displaystyle m}$

${\displaystyle \epsilon _{0}}$

${\displaystyle \hbar }$

${\displaystyle \omega _{\rm {p}}}$

Surface plasmons

Surface plasmons can play a role in surface-enhanced Raman spectroscopy and in explaining anomalies in diffraction from metal gratings (Wood's anomaly), among other things. Surface plasmon resonance is used by biochemists to study the mechanisms and kinetics of ligands binding to receptors (i.e. a substrate binding to an enzyme). Multi-parametric surface plasmon resonance can be used not only to measure molecular interactions but also nanolayer properties or structural changes in the adsorbed molecules, polymer layers or graphene, for instance.

Surface plasmons may also be observed in the X-ray emission spectra of metals. A dispersion relation for surface plasmons in the X-ray emission spectra of metals has been derived (Harsh and Agarwal).^[13]

More recently surface plasmons have been used to control colors of materials.

Recently, graphene has also been shown to accommodate surface plasmons, observed via near field infrared optical microscopy techniques^[15][16] and infrared spectroscopy.^[17] Potential applications of graphene plasmonics mainly addressed the terahertz to midinfrared frequencies, such as optical modulators, photodetectors, biosensors.^[18]

Possible applications

The position and intensity of plasmon absorption and emission peaks are affected by molecular adsorption, which can be used in molecular sensors. For example, a fully operational device detecting casein in milk has been prototyped, based on detecting a change in absorption of a gold layer.^[19] Localized surface plasmons of metal nanoparticles can be used for sensing different types of molecules, proteins, etc.

Plasmons are being considered as a means of transmitting information on

Plasmons have also been proposed as a means of high-resolution lithography and microscopy due to their extremely small wavelengths; both of these applications have seen successful demonstrations in the lab environment.

Finally, surface plasmons have the unique capacity to confine light to very small dimensions, which could enable many new applications.

Surface plasmons are very sensitive to the properties of the materials on which they propagate. This has led to their use to measure the thickness of monolayers on colloid films, such as screening and quantifying protein binding events. Companies such as Biacore have commercialized instruments that operate on these principles. Optical surface plasmons are being investigated with a view to improve makeup by L'Oréal and others.^[21]

In 2009, a Korean research team found a way to greatly improve

A group of European researchers led by IMEC has begun work to improve solar cell efficiencies and costs through incorporation of metallic nanostructures (using plasmonic effects) that can enhance absorption of light into different types of solar cells: crystalline silicon (c-Si), high-performance III-V, organic, and dye-sensitized.

Plasmon-soliton mathematically refers to the hybrid solution of nonlinear amplitude equation e.g. for a metal-nonlinear media considering both the plasmon mode and solitary solution. A soliplasmon resonance is on the other hand considered as a quasiparticle combining the surface plasmon mode with spatial soliton as a result of a resonant interaction.

Graphene-based waveguide is a suitable platform for supporting hybrid plasmon-solitons due to the large effective area and huge nonlinearity.^[30] For example, the propagation of solitary waves in a graphene-dielectric heterostructure may appear as in the form of higher order solitons or discrete solitons resulting from the competition between diffraction and nonlinearity.^[31][32]

See also

Footnotes