Bridging quantum and classical plasmonics with a quantum-corrected model

By Ruben Esteban, Andrei G. Borisov, P. Nordlander, Javier Aizpurua. Nature Communications, 2012

882 citations recorded by the source corpus.

Electromagnetic coupling between plasmonic resonances in metallic nanoparticles allows for engineering of the optical response and generation of strong localized near-fields. Classical electrodynamics fails to describe this coupling across sub-nanometer gaps, where quantum effects become important owing to non-local screening and the spill-out of electrons. However, full quantum simulations are not presently feasible for realistically sized systems. Here we present a novel approach, the quantum-corrected model (QCM), that incorporates quantum-mechanical effects within a classical electrodynamic framework. The QCM approach models the junction between adjacent nanoparticles by means of a local dielectric response that includes electron tunnelling and tunnelling resistivity at the gap and can be integrated within a classical electrodynamical description of large and complex structures. The QCM predicts optical properties in excellent agreement with fully quantum mechanical calculations for small interacting systems, opening a new venue for addressing quantum effects in realistic plasmonic systems. As lengthscales in plasmonic structures enter the sub-nanometre regime, quantum effects become increasingly important. Here, a quantum-corrected model is presented that addresses quantum effects in realistic-sized plasmonic structures, a situation not feasible for full-quantum-mechanical simulations.

Subfields: Biomedical Engineering, Electrical and Electronic Engineering, Electronic, Optical and Magnetic Materials

View Paper: https://www.semanticscholar.org/paper/0808bccca2e3b7744936de79aeb20bfb20e67990

How researchers see this paper

The researchers whose trusted networks rank it highest, strongest advocate first. Every researcher gets a different order.

In Biomedical Engineering

1. S. A. Maier
2. Prineha Narang
3. Vincenzo Giannini
4. P. Nordlander
5. Di Xiao
6. Xiaoguang Li
7. Zhenyu Zhang
8. Javier Aizpurua

In Electrical and Electronic Engineering

1. S. A. Maier
2. Prineha Narang
3. Vincenzo Giannini
4. Richard V. Craster
5. Jamie M. Fitzgerald
6. P. Nordlander
7. Di Xiao
8. Kenneth B. Crozier

In Electronic, Optical and Magnetic Materials

1. S. A. Maier
2. Prineha Narang
3. Vincenzo Giannini
4. P. Nordlander
5. Di Xiao
6. Zhenyu Zhang
7. Xiaoguang Li
8. Javier Aizpurua

Citations in the corpus

• Quantum Plasmonics (2016, methodology): “As expected, TDDFT and QCM agree for very small gaps below 0.5 Å, i.e., when the tunneling dominate, while HM and local Drude overestimate the enhancements.”
• Quantum mechanical effects in plasmonic structures with subnanometre gaps (2016, background): “The results showed good agreement with the original QCM developed by Esteban et al. Along with electron tunnelling, nonlocal screening34,35 is another quantum effect that could influence the plasmon resonances of a metallic dimer.”
• Landau damping of quantum plasmons in metal nanostructures (2013, background): “However, as the characteristic lengths of the plasmonic materials become smaller and smaller, intriguing phenomena may emerge beyond the expectations of the classical picture [11–14], demanding more accurate, quantum mechanical treatments [15–17].”