Giant Surface-Plasmon-Induced Drag Effect in Metal Nanowires

Here, for the first time we predict a giant surface-plasmon-induced drag-effect rectification (SPIDER), which exists under conditions of the extreme nanoplasmonic confinement. In nanowires, this giant SPIDER generates rectified THz potential differences up to 10 V and extremely strong electric fields up to $\sim {10}^5–{10}^6\mathrm{V}/\mathrm{cm}$. The giant SPIDER is an ultrafast effect whose bandwidth for nanometric wires is $\sim 20\mathrm{THz}$. It opens up a new field of ultraintense THz nanooptics with wide potential applications in nanotechnology and nanoscience, including microelectronics, nanoplasmonics, and biomedicine.

Figure 1

SPIDER for long SPP pulses: emf and rectified field dependence on the frequency $\hslash \omega$ and wire radius $R$. Note the logarithmic scale for the magnitude of the effect. (a) Dependence of the SPIDER emf per unit SPP power $\mathcal{E}/\mathcal{P}$ on wire radius and frequency. The black solid curve indicates the parameters at which SPP pressure is equal to striction. The magnitude of the effect is denoted by the color-coding bar. (b) Dependence of SPIDER magnitude $\mathcal{E}/\mathcal{P}$ on wire radius $R$ per unit power of the SPP wave (solid red curve). The contributions of the pressure and striction to the total magnitude of SPIDER are shown by the dashed curves. (c) Dependence of SPIDER magnitude per unit power $\mathcal{E}/\mathcal{P}$ on frequency $\omega$ for $R=5\mathrm{nm}$. (d) Maximum power that a wire can tolerate ${\mathcal{P}}_m$ as a function of wire radius $R$ for different frequencies $\omega$. (e) The maximum SPIDER field $E_{mR}$ (for the maximum tolerable power ${\mathcal{P}}_m$) as a function of frequency for three wire radii $R=5$, 30, and 100 nm. (f) The maximum SPIDER field $E_{mR}$ (for the maximum tolerable power ${\mathcal{P}}_m$) as a function of the wire radius $R$ for frequency $\hslash \omega =1.55\mathrm{eV}$.

Figure 2

SPIDER created by ultrashort SPP pulses: fast femtosecond emf response. (a) The dependence of the SPP lifetime $t_p=l_p/v_g$ on the frequency $\hslash \omega$ for $R=5\mathrm{nm}$ and $R=30\mathrm{nm}$. (b) The time dependence of the emf $\mathcal{E}(t)$ (green line, left scale) and input power $\mathcal{P}(t)$ (red line, right scale). Dashed blue line: exponential tail. The pulse duration is $\tau =1\mathrm{ps}\gg t_p\approx 30\mathrm{fs}$ and the emf closely follows the SPP pulse dynamics. (c) The same for much shorter pulse with $\tau =40\mathrm{fs}$. (d) Emf induced by the short pulse in nanowire with $R=30\mathrm{nm}$ with frequency $\hslash \omega =1.2\mathrm{eV}$. The emf response is broadened, since $\tau =80\mathrm{fs}$, while $t_p\approx 150\mathrm{fs}$.