Surface Plasmon Amplification by Stimulated Emission of Radiation: Quantum Generation of Coherent Surface Plasmons in Nanosystems

Abstract

We make a step towards quantum nanoplasmonics: surface plasmon fields of a nanosystem are quantized and their stimulated emission is considered. We introduce a quantum generator for surface plasmon quanta and consider the phenomenon of surface plasmon amplification by stimulated emission of radiation (spaser). Spaser generates temporally coherent high-intensity fields of selected surface plasmon modes that can be strongly localized on the nanoscale, including dark modes that do not couple to far-zone electromagnetic fields. Applications and related phenomena are discussed.