Wavefunction of plasmon excitations with space charge effects

Abstract

The one dimensional (1D) driven quantum coupled pseudoforce system governing the dynamics of collective Langmuir electron oscillations is used in order to investigate the effects of variety of space charge distributions on plasmon excitations of a nearly free electron gas with an arbitrary degree of degeneracy and electron fluid temperature. A generalized closed form analytic expression for the grand wavefunction of collective excitations in the presence of an arbitrary space charge distribution is presented based on the stationary solutions of the driven coupled pseudoforce system which has been derived from the Schrödinger-Poisson model. The wavefunction and electrostatic potential profiles for some special cases such as the Heaviside charge distribution, Dirac charge sheet, impurity charge sheet in the 1D plasmonic lattice, and the Kroning-Penney Dirac charge distributions with particular applications in plasmonics and condensed matter physics are investigated in this paper. It is remarkably found that two parallel Dirac charged sheets completely shield all interior plasmon excitations with any given energy value from outside electrostatic fields and charge densities. It is also found that the presence of even a weakly charged impurity layer within a perfect 1D plasmonic crystal profoundly alters the periodic electrostatic field of the crystal lattice, and hence, the Bloch character of the wavefunction is considered in the bandgap theory of solids. The current investigation of electron excitations in arbitrary degenerate electron gas in the presence of static charge distributions may be used to develop analytic models for a variety of real physical situations. It also helps in further developments of the rapidly growing fields of nanotechnology and plasmonics.