Coulomb excitations for a short linear chain of metallic shells

Abstract

A self-consistent-field theory is given for the electronic collective modes of a chain containing a finite number, N, of Coulomb-coupled spherical two-dimensional electron gases arranged with their centers along a straight line, for simulating electromagnetic response of a narrow-ribbon of metallic shells. The separation between nearest-neighbor shells is arbitrary and because of the quantization of the electron energy levels due to their confinement to the spherical surface, all angular momenta L of the Coulomb excitations, as well as their projections M on the quantization axis, are coupled. However, for incoming light with a given polarization, only one angular momentum quantum number is usually required. Therefore, the electromagnetic response of the narrow-ribbon of metallic shells is expected to be controlled externally by selecting different polarizations for incident light. We show that, when N = 3, the next-nearest-neighbor Coulomb coupling is larger than its value if they are located at opposite ends of a right-angle triangle forming the triad. Additionally, the frequencies of the plasma excitations are found to depend on the orientation of the line joining them with respect to the axis of quantization since the magnetic field generated from the induced oscillating electric dipole moment on one sphere can couple to the induced magnetic dipole moment on another. Although the transverse inter-shell electromagnetic coupling can be modeled by an effective dynamic medium, the longitudinal inter-shell Coulomb coupling, on the other hand, can still significantly modify the electromagnetic property of this effective medium between shells.