Surface plasmon–polaritons' contribution to the specific heat of quasiperiodic GaAs/SiO2 structures

Abstract

It is quite interesting that the energy spectra of a variety of collective modes on quasiperiodic structures, exhibit a complex fractal profile due to the underlying long range order induced by the specific deterministic sequences used to build them up. In order to have a deep insight on the relevant thermodynamic implications of the above mentioned long range order, we have performed analytical and numerical calculations of the surface plasmon–polariton's contribution to the specific heat associated with successive hierarchical sequences of quasiperiodic Fibonacci structures. They can be traced back to the surface plasmon–polariton's self-similar energy spectra. We consider the building blocks, used to set up these structures, as the semiconductor GaAs and the insulator SiO2. At the interfaces there is a two-dimensional electron gas, modeled due to the presence of a surface density of current. We have also calculated the specific heat at the two temperature limit cases, namely when T goes to zero and infinity.