Peculiarities of Surface Plasmons in Quantum Plasmas

TL;DR

This paper investigates surface plasmons in quantum plasmas with degenerate electrons, revealing unique dispersion and attenuation characteristics due to electron Pauli blocking, and identifying two distinct types of surface plasmons in semi-bounded degenerate plasmas.

Contribution

It demonstrates that semi-bounded degenerate quantum plasmas support two types of surface plasmons with different frequencies and attenuation, unlike non-degenerate plasmas.

Findings

Two types of surface plasmons identified in degenerate plasmas

Distinct dispersion relations for each plasmon type

Different temporal attenuation behaviors observed

Abstract

Surface plasmons (SP) in a semi-bounded quantum plasma with degenerate electrons (e.g., a metal) is considered, and some interesting consequences of electron Pauli blocking for the SP dispersion and temporal attenuation are discussed. In particular, it is demonstrated that a semi-bounded degenerate plasma with a sharp boundary supports two types of SP with distinct frequencies and qualitatively different temporal attenuation, in contrast to a non-degenerate plasma that only supports one type of SP \citep{Guernsey_1969}.