Relativistic electron energy loss and induced radiation emission in two-dimensional metallic photonic crystals I: formalism and surface plasmon polariton

TL;DR

This paper develops a relativistic formalism to analyze electron energy loss and radiation in 2D metallic photonic crystals, revealing how surface plasmon polaritons and cavity modes influence the spectra.

Contribution

It introduces a comprehensive relativistic multiple scattering approach for metallic cylinder arrays, linking energy loss spectra to surface plasmon polariton dispersion.

Findings

Energy loss spectra correlate with surface plasmon polariton dispersion.

Cavity modes significantly influence the electron energy loss spectrum.

Effective medium approximation describes electron behavior inside arrays.

Abstract

A fully relativistic description of the electron energy loss and the induced radiation emission in arbitrary arrays of non-overlapping metallic cylinders is presented in terms of the multiple scattering method on the basis of vector cylindrical waves. Numerical analysis is given for dilute and dense arrays of Aluminum cylinders with a nanoscale diameter. The results of the electron energy loss spectrum are well correlated with the dispersion relation of coupled surface plasmon polaritons, and can be interpreted with an effective medium approximation when the electron runs inside the arrays. In addition, the cavity modes localized in the grooves between the cylinders can affect strongly the electron energy loss spectrum.