Possible self-amplification channel for surface plasma waves

Abstract

Surface plasma waves (SPWs) have been extensively studied in the past two decades with a promise for many applications. However, the effort has so far been met with limited success. It is widely believed that a major caveat lies with the energy losses experienced by SPWs during their propagation. To compensate for the losses, amplifiers have been designed, which are all extrinsic and need an external agent to supply the energy. Here we theoretically show that there exists an intrinsic amplification channel for SPWs in the collision-less limit. We pin down the origin of this channel and analytically calculate the amplification rate. Our finding unveils a hitherto unchartered yet fundamental property of SPWs and may bear far-reaching practical consequences.

Major revision in presentation, 2 more figs

References in corpus (3)

• Theory of surface plasmons and surface-plasmon polaritons
• Surface-plasmon resonances of arbitrarily shaped nanometallic structures in the small-screening-length limit
• Plasma Wave Instabilities in Non-Equilibrium Graphene

Cited by in corpus (6)

• Theory of non-retarded ballistic surface plasma waves in metal films
• Possible Instability of the Fermi sea of metals against surface plasma oscillations
• A resolution of the problem of additional boundary conditions
• On the electrical conductivity of metals with a rough surface
• Electrostatic responses of anisotropic dielectric films
• Hydrodynamic effects on the energy transfer from dipoles to metal slab