On Nature of Plasmon Drag Effect

TL;DR

This paper presents a theoretical framework for understanding the plasmon drag effect in metals, explaining experimental observations and predicting behavior in modulated structures, laying groundwork for future nanostructure studies.

Contribution

It introduces a plasmonic pressure-based model that accounts for non-equilibrium electron dynamics and extends to modulated metal films, advancing understanding of plasmonic momentum transfer.

Findings

The model explains the relationship between electromotive force and absorption.

It accurately predicts the magnitude of plasmon drag emf in flat metal films.

The theory extends to modulated films with small amplitude height variations.

Abstract

Light-matter momentum transfer in plasmonic materials is theoretically discussed in the framework of plasmonic pressure mechanism taking into account non-equilibrium electron dynamics and thermalization process. We show that our approach explains the experimentally observed relationship between the plasmon-related electromotive force and absorption and allows one to correctly predict the magnitude of the plasmon drag emf in flat metal films. We extend our theory to metal films with modulated profiles and show that the simple relationship between plasmonic energy and momentum transfer holds at relatively small amplitudes of height modulation and an approximation of laminar electron drift. Theoretical groundwork is laid for further investigations of shape-controlled plasmon drag in nanostructured metal.