Plasma Resonance in Layered Normal Metals and Superconductors

TL;DR

This paper develops a microscopic theory for plasma resonance in layered metals and superconductors, revealing how impurity scattering affects resonance behavior differently in normal and superconducting states.

Contribution

It introduces a detailed microscopic model that explains the impact of impurity scattering on plasma resonance in layered materials, surpassing phenomenological approaches.

Findings

Impurity scattering suppresses plasma resonance in the normal state.

Impurity scattering sharpens plasma resonance in the superconducting state.

The conductivity's frequency dependence is highly non-trivial and cannot be captured by simple models.

Abstract

A microscopic theory of the plasma resonance in layered metals is presented. It is shown that electron-impurity scattering can suppress the plasma resonance in the normal state and sharpen it in the superconducting state. Analytic properties of the conductivity for the electronic transport perpendicular to the layers are investigated. The dissipative part of the electromagnetic response in c-direction has been found to depend on frequency in a highly non-trivial manner. This sort of behavior cannot be incorporated in the widely used phenomenological Gorter-Kazimir model.