Electric pulse on a metallic wire

Abstract

An idealized model of propagation of electric pulses along metallic wires is presented. Within this model, a short electric pulse produced at a point on a long metallic wire may propagate along the wire with the speed of light in vacuum over long distances, practically dispersionless and without energy loss. The pulse excites in wire a tail of plasmon-polaritons, which propagate along the wire with the speed of light in vacuum c, plasma frequency ωp (wavelength λ = c/ωp) and wavefronts at ∣x ∣ = ct, where x the coordinate along the wire and t denotes the time. This is a non-thermal (adiabatic) process, with a very low rate of energy dissipation and, practically, radiationless. The reason for such a lossless propagation resides in the high values of the plasma frequency and the restoring force of the charges, which lead to a charge displacement much smaller than the mean freepath.