COHERENT EXCITATION OF OPTICAL OSCILLATIONS IN A METAL NANOSPHERE BY A 2D ELECTRIC CURRENT

We propose a new concept of localized surface plasmon polariton (SPP) mode excitation in a spherical nanoparticle, which utilizes a collective mechanism of dissipative instability in an adjacent 2D plasma carrying a DC electric current. We show that 2D DC current becomes unstable at optical frequencies when the drift velocity exceeds the speed of sound in the 2D plasma. Dissipative instability emerges as a result of self-consistent 2D plasma oscillations coupled to the electromagnetic modes of the nanosphere, the material of which is absorbing at given frequency (i.e., the dielectric permittivity Im epsilon > 0), and instability is absent in the case of transparent material. We derive the dispersion equation for this dissipative instability by a self-consistent solution of the Maxwell equations for the electromagnetic modes and the hydrodynamic equations for the 2D plasma current. Our estimates demonstrate attainment of very high instability increments Im omega similar to 10(15) s(-1), which makes the proposed concept very promising for excitation of plasmonic nanoantennas.