Field enhancement at metallic interfaces due to quantum confinement

Z. Fatih Öztürk*, Sanshui Xiao, Min Yan, Martijn Wubs, Antti Pekka Jauho, N. Asger Mortensen

*Corresponding author for this work

Research output: Contribution to journalArticlepeer-review

22 Citations (Scopus)

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 languageEnglish
Article number51602
JournalJournal of Nanophotonics
Volume5
Issue number1
DOIs
Publication statusPublished - 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.

FundersFunder number
Danish Research Council for Technology and Production Sciences274-07-0080, 274-07-0379
Strategiske Forskningsråd2117-05-0037
Suomen Akatemia

    Keywords

    • Friedel oscillations
    • field enhancement
    • nanoplasmonics
    • zero-epsilon phenomena

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