Semiclassical theory for plasmons in spatially inhomogeneous media

Abstract

Recent progress in experimental techniques has made the quantum regime in plasmonics accessible. Since plasmons correspond to collective electron excitations, the electron–electron interaction plays an essential role in their theoretical description. Within the Random Phase Approximation, this interaction is incorporated through a system of equations of motion, which has to be solved self-consistently. For homogeneous media, an analytical solution can be found using the Fourier transform, giving rise to Lindhard theory. When the medium is spatially inhomogeneous, this is no longer possible and one often uses numerical approaches, which are however limited to smaller systems. In this paper, we present a novel semi-analytical approach for bulk plasmons in inhomogeneous media based on the semiclassical (or WKB) approximation, which is applicable when the charge density varies smoothly. By solving the equations of motion self-consistently, we obtain the expressions of Lindhard theory with a spatially varying Fermi wavevector. The derivation involves passing from the operators to their symbols, which can be thought of as classical observables on phase space. In this way we obtain effective (Hamiltonian) equations of motion for plasmons. We then find the quantized energy levels and the plasmon spectrum using Einstein–Brilllouin–Keller quantization. Our results provide a theoretical basis to describe different setups in quantum plasmonics, such as nanoparticles, quantum dots and waveguides.