New quantum limits in plasmonic devices

¹  Department of Physics, Umeå University - SE-901 87 Umeå, Sweden, EU
²  Department of Physics, University of Maryland - College Park, MD 20742, USA

Corresponding author: mattias.marklund@physics.umu.se

Received: 2 May 2008
Accepted: 27 August 2008

Abstract

Surface plasmon polaritons (SPPs) have recently been recognized as an important future technique for microelectronics. Such SPPs have been studied using classical theory. However, current state-of-the-art experiments are rapidly approaching nanoscales, and quantum effects can then become important. Here we study the properties of quantum SPPs at the interface between an electron quantum plasma and a dielectric material. It is shown that the effect of quantum broadening of the transition layer is most important. In particular, the damping of SPPs does not vanish even in the absence of collisional dissipation, thus posing a fundamental size limit for plasmonic devices. Consequences and applications of our results are pointed out.