We develop a theory for surface-assisted plasmon decay in metal nanostructures of arbitrary shape. We derive the rate of electron surface scattering, which facilitates plasmon decay in small nanostructures, that is determined by local field polarization relative to metal-dielectric interface and is highly sensitive to the system geometry. We show that the surface scattering can be incorporated into metal dielectric function on par with phonon and impurity scattering. We illustrate our model by providing analytical results for surface scattering rate in some common shape nanostructures. Our results can be used for calculations of hot carrier generation rates in photovoltaics and photochemistry applications.

Date Published: 24 August 2017
PDF: 14 pages
Proc. SPIE 10343, Metamaterials, Metadevices, and Metasystems 2017, 1034323 (24 August 2017); doi: 10.1117/12.2272872

Published in SPIE Proceedings Vol. 10343:
Metamaterials, Metadevices, and Metasystems 2017
Nader Engheta; Mikhail A. Noginov; Nikolay I. Zheludev, Editor(s)