Plasmon wakefields and dispersive properties of metallic nanostructures

TL;DR

This paper explores how short electron pulses excite electrostatic wakefields in metallic nanowires, considering quantum and dispersive effects, with implications for generating XUV radiation.

Contribution

It introduces a generalized model including nonlocal dielectric response and quantum diffraction effects for wakefield excitation in nanostructures.

Findings

Wakefields can be stably excited under certain conditions.

The mechanism may lead to new XUV radiation sources.

Dispersive and quantum effects significantly influence wakefield behavior.

Abstract

We investigate the excitation of electrostatic wakefields in metallic nanostructures (nanowires) due to the propagation of a short electron pulse. For that purpose, a dispersive (nonlocal) dielectric response of the system is considered, accounting for both the finiteness of the system and the quantum (Bohm) difraction of the conduction electron band, generalizing the results obtained previously in the literature [Phys. Rev. Lett. \textbf{103}, 097403 (2009)]. We discuss on the stability conditions of wakefields and show that the underling mechanism can be useful to investigate new sources of radiation in the extreme-ultra-violet (XUV) range.