Abstract

The dispersion relation of surface plasmon (SP), i.e. surface wave propagating along a metal/dielectric interface, incorporating nonlinear effects due to the ponderomotive force in metal is studied exactly. The decaying electric field of the surface wave away from the interface leads to a large gradient of the field intensity, which in turn drives electrons in the metal away from the high field region due to the ponderomotive force. The net effect is a field-dependent electron number density and thus a spatially varying plasma frequency in the metal as a function of the distance from the interface [1].

© 2013 Japan Society of Applied Physics, Optical Society of America