Generalized plasma waves in layered superconductors

TL;DR

This paper provides a comprehensive theoretical framework for understanding generalized plasma waves in layered superconductors, revealing hybrid modes with mixed characteristics and potential for advanced plasmonic applications.

Contribution

It offers a unified description of plasma waves at arbitrary energy and momentum, connecting them to the gauge-invariant superconducting phase and elucidating their hybrid nature.

Findings

Identifies two hybrid light-matter modes with mixed longitudinal and transverse character.

Shows a purely longitudinal plasmon only at wavevectors above a certain crossover scale.

Highlights equal weight of both modes in the density response below the crossover scale.

Abstract

In a layered and strongly anisotropic superconductor the hybrid modes provided by the propagation of electromagnetic waves in the matter identify two well separate energy scales connected to the large in-plane plasma frequency and to the soft out-of-plane Josephson plasmon. Despite the wide interest in their detection and manipulation by means of different experimental protocols, a unified description of plasma waves valid at arbitrary energy and momentum is still lacking. Here we provide a complete description of generalized plasma waves in a layered superconductors by taking advantage of their connection to the gauge-invariant superconducting phase. We show that the anisotropy of the superfluid response leads to two intertwined hybrid light-matter modes with mixed longitudinal and transverse character, while a purely longitudinal plasmon is only recovered for wavevectors larger than the crossover scale set in by the plasma-frequencies anisotropy. Interestingly, below such scale both modes appears with equal weight in the physical density response. Our results open a promising perspective for plasmonic applications made possible by the next-generation spectroscopic techniques able to combine sub-micron momentum resolution with THz energy resolution.