Plasmons and Plasma

Frequency
PHY402 : Solid State Physics
Vishnu (MS17179)
 Presentation Layout
 Plasmons
 Surface plasmons
 Plasma frequency
 Measurement
 What are plasmons?
 Plasmon is a quantum of plasma oscillation, Just
as light (an optical oscillation) consists
of photons, the plasma oscillation consists of
plasmons
 Plasmons are Quasiparticles since it arises from
the quantization of plasma oscillations
 They mostly occur in a metal, where we have
fixed positive charged ions and around these we
have free negatively charged electrons
 Thus, plasmons are collective oscillations of
the free electron gas density
For a spherical metallic nanoparticle, the
electrons shift to one side upon exposure to an
external electric field, and upon removal of the
field shift back to the other side and oscillate back
and forth. These charge oscillation is known as a
bulk plasmon
 Surface Plasmons
 They are charge oscillations at the interface of a
metal and a dielectric material
 If there is an electric field at the surface of a metal,
the charges inside the metal will rearrange and try to
screen the electric field
 The electric field decays very quickly inside the metal
and more slowly in the dielectric. Thus it restricted to
the interface
 The surface plasmons then propagate along the
surface of the metal
 Surface plasmons have a lower frequency than bulk
plasmons
(a) Schematics of bulk plasmons: the electron density in metal oscillates under an
external electric field E . (b) Schematics of SPP at a metal/dielectric interface,
propagating along the x-direction and confined in the z-direction. (c) Schematics of
localized surface plasmons: the charge distribution of a metallic nanoparticle oscillates
under an external electric field, inducing a dipole moment p
 Plasma Frequency
 The frequency at which electrons in a metal will
oscillate around the positive ions if they get out
of equilibirum is called plasma frequency (ωp)
 It the frequency below which light will get
reflected out if we shine it on a metal
 If we assume a free electron gas we get dielectric
function as:

 If ω < ωp , ε will be negative, which means, that

for these frequencies no light can propagate
through the crystal
 Measurement
 The most common measurement technique for
plasmons is electron energy loss spectroscopy
(EELS)
 Electrons with an energy of several keV are
reflected from a metal surface and lose energy by
exciting 1, 2, 3, … plasmons
Some video links which show
surface plasma resonance

 https://youtu.be/z9Rro7FDeDo
 https://youtu.be/RO6Rq6-cqsY
 References
 https://lampx.tugraz.at/~hadley/ss2/problems/plasm
ons/s.pdf?#:~:text=5%20Does%20the%20plasma
%20frequency,oscillate%20with%20the%20plasma
%20frequency
 https://uw.physics.wisc.edu/~himpsel/551/Lectures/Pl
asmonics.pdf
 https://www.researchgate.net/publication/279659521
_Resonant_Raman-
Brillouin_scattering_in_semiconductor_and_metallic
_nanostructures_from_nano-acoustics_to_acousto-
plasmonics
Thank You