2012/08/06 by Andrea Marini, Marini, Andrea, Matteo Conforti +18
Engineering · Physics and Astronomy · #FOS: Physical sciences #Mechanical and Optical Resonators #Optics (physics.optics) #Photonic and Optical Devices #Plasma Physics (physics.plasm-ph) #Plasmonic and Surface Plasmon Research #physics.optics #physics.plasm-ph
paper · pdf · doi:10.48550/arxiv.1208.1119
17 pages, 18 figures
arxiv created 2012/08/06 · openalex publication_date 2012/08/06 · arxiv updated 2012/08/07 · openalex created_date 2016/06/24 · openalex updated_date 2026/07/28
Starting from first principles, we theoretically model the nonlinear temporal dynamics of gold-based plasmonic devices resulting from the heating of their metallic components. At optical frequencies, the gold susceptibility is determined by the interband transitions around the X,L points in the first Brillouin zone and thermo-modulational effects ensue from Fermi smearing of the electronic energy distribution in the conduction band. As a consequence of light-induced heating of the conduction electrons, the optical susceptibility becomes nonlinear. In this paper we describe, for the first time to our knowledge, the effects of the thermo-modulational nonlinearity of gold on the propagation of surface plasmon polaritons guided on gold nanowires. We introduce a novel nonlinear Schroedinger-like equation to describe pulse propagation in such nanowires, and we predict the appearance an intense spectral red-shift caused by the delayed thermal response.