Surface plasmon amplification by stimulated emission of radiation: quantum generation of coherent surface plasmons in nanosystems

Phys Rev Lett. 2003 Jan 17;90(2):027402. doi: 10.1103/PhysRevLett.90.027402. Epub 2003 Jan 14.

Abstract

We make a step towards quantum nanoplasmonics: surface plasmon fields of a nanosystem are quantized and their stimulated emission is considered. We introduce a quantum generator for surface plasmon quanta and consider the phenomenon of surface plasmon amplification by stimulated emission of radiation (spaser). Spaser generates temporally coherent high-intensity fields of selected surface plasmon modes that can be strongly localized on the nanoscale, including dark modes that do not couple to far-zone electromagnetic fields. Applications and related phenomena are discussed.