Performance of Nonlocal Optics When Applied to Plasmonic Nanostructures

• Published in: Journal of physical chemistry. C Vol. 117; no. 17; pp. 8941 - 8949
• Main Authors: Stella, Lorenzo, Zhang, Pu, García-Vidal, F. J, Rubio, Angel, García-González, P
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: Columbus, OH American Chemical Society 02-05-2013
• Subjects: Collective effects; Condensed matter: electronic structure, electrical, magnetic, and optical properties; Electron states; Exact sciences and technology; Exchange, correlation, dielectric and magnetic functions, plasmons; Methods of electronic structure calculations; Physics; Time dependence; Conduction electron; Density functional method; Plasmons; Nanostructures; Absorption spectra; Electron density; Electric currents; Optical absorption
• ISSN: 1932-7447; 1932-7455
• DOI: 10.1021/jp401887y

Semiclassical nonlocal optics based on the hydrodynamic description of conduction electrons might be an adequate tool to study complex phenomena in the emerging field of nanoplasmonics. With the aim of confirming this idea, we obtain the local and nonlocal optical absorption spectra in a model nanoplasmonic device in which there are spatial gaps between the components at nanometric and subnanometric scales. After a comparison against time-dependent density functional calculations, we conclude that hydrodynamic nonlocal optics provides absorption spectra exhibiting qualitative agreement but not quantitative accuracy. This lack of accuracy, which is manifest even in the limit where induced electric currents are not established between the constituents of the device, is mainly due to the poor description of induced electron densities.