Abstract
We point out an apparently overlooked consequence of the boundary conditions obeyed by the electric displacement vector at air-metal interfaces: the continuity of the normal component combined with the quantum mechanical penetration of the electron gas in the air implies the existence of a surface on which the dielectric function vanishes. This, in turn, leads to an enhancement of the normal component of the total electric field. We study this effect for a planar metal surface, with the inhomogeneous electron density accounted for by a Jellium model. We also illustrate the effect for equilateral triangular nanoislands via numerical solutions of the appropriate Maxwell equations, and show that the field enhancement is several orders of magnitude larger than what the conventional theory predicts.
Original language | English |
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Article number | 51602 |
Journal | Journal of Nanophotonics |
Volume | 5 |
Issue number | 1 |
DOIs | |
Publication status | Published - 2011 |
Funding
We thank Peter Nordlander, Natalia M. Litchinitser, and Vladimir M. Shalaev for useful discussions. This work was financially supported by the Danish Council for Strategic Research through the Strategic Program for Young Researcher (Grant No. 2117-05-0037), the Danish Research Council for Technology and Production Sciences (Grants No. 274-07-0080 and 274-07-0379), as well as the FiDiPro program of the Finnish Academy.
Funders | Funder number |
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Danish Research Council for Technology and Production Sciences | 274-07-0080, 274-07-0379 |
Strategiske Forskningsråd | 2117-05-0037 |
Suomen Akatemia |
Keywords
- Friedel oscillations
- field enhancement
- nanoplasmonics
- zero-epsilon phenomena