Single-electron induced surface plasmons on a topological nanoparticle

G. Siroki, D.K.K. Lee, P. D. Haynes and V. Giannini ()
Additional contact information
G. Siroki: Imperial College London
D.K.K. Lee: Imperial College London
P. D. Haynes: Imperial College London
V. Giannini: Imperial College London

Nature Communications, 2016, vol. 7, issue 1, 1-6

Abstract: Abstract It is rarely the case that a single electron affects the behaviour of several hundred thousands of atoms. Here we demonstrate a phenomenon where this happens. The key role is played by topological insulators—materials that have surface states protected by time-reversal symmetry. Such states are delocalized over the surface and are immune to its imperfections in contrast to ordinary insulators. For topological insulators, the effects of these surface states will be more strongly pronounced in the case of nanoparticles. Here we show that under the influence of light a single electron in a topologically protected surface state creates a surface charge density similar to a plasmon in a metallic nanoparticle. Such an electron can act as a screening layer, which suppresses absorption inside the particle. In addition, it can couple phonons and light, giving rise to a previously unreported topological particle polariton mode. These effects may be useful in the areas of plasmonics, cavity electrodynamics and quantum information.

Date: 2016
References: Add references at CitEc
Citations:

Downloads: (external link)
https://www.nature.com/articles/ncomms12375 Abstract (text/html)

Related works:
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:nat:natcom:v:7:y:2016:i:1:d:10.1038_ncomms12375

Ordering information: This journal article can be ordered from
https://www.nature.com/ncomms/

DOI: 10.1038/ncomms12375

Access Statistics for this article

Nature Communications is currently edited by Nathalie Le Bot, Enda Bergin and Fiona Gillespie

More articles in Nature Communications from Nature
Bibliographic data for series maintained by Sonal Shukla () and Springer Nature Abstracting and Indexing ().