Foundations of Plasmonics

Abstract

Plasma physics is a very mature field, studied extensively for well over a century. The cross-disciplinary field of plasmonics (electromagnetics of metallic nanostructures), on the other hand, with its potential for an extraordinary light control through novel class of materials and the resulting applications, has become very fashionable only recently. Inevitably, as a result of this rapid development, the deep connections with the mother discipline, the plasma physics, have sometimes been overlooked. The goal of this work is to review some of these basic connections, which are relevant, and ultimately helpful for researchers in the new field. We focus on the solid-state structured plasmas and address the issue of classical versus quantum treatments. We discuss the little known subtleties of the surface plasmons at metallic surfaces (e.g. multipole plasmons) and their consequences on plasmonics of the textured metallic films. Plasmonics of nanoparticles has been preceded by studies of plasma effects in me...