Plasmons

W. Luis Moch an
Centro de Ciencias Fsicas, Universidad Nacional Aut onoma de M exico,
Apartado Postal 48-3, Cuernavaca, Mor., 62251 M exico
I. INTRODUCTION
Consider a metal whose conductions electrons move freely. In equilibrium the negative electronic charge is balanced by the
positive charge of the ionized metal atoms. If this balance is somehow disturbed by perturbing the electron density, increasing
it within some region R which becomes thus negatively charged, the electrons would be subsequently driven away from that
region by their mutual repulsion. Equilibrium is however not restored immediately, as the electrons have inertia and would keep
on moving away from R even after the system becomes neutral. Thus, after some time interval, R would become positively
charged. The electrons would then be attracted to this positive charge, arresting their outward motion and inducing an inward
motion. By overshooting again the equilibrium situation, R would become negative again and the whole cycle would repeat
itself until the energy associated with the perturbation is lost through Joule heating or some other dissipative process. Thus,
an oscillation of the charge carrier density may be established within conductors. Due to the analogy between the electronic
dynamics within a metal and the motion of charged ions within a plasma, the charge oscillations described above are known
as plasma oscillations, and they have a characteriztic frequency
p
which depends on the mass, density, and charge of the
carriers, known as the plasma frequency. Typically, this frequency is much higher than the thermal frequency k
B
T/ h, where k
B
is Boltzmanns constant, T is the temperature, and h is Plancks constant, so that the quantization of the plasma oscillations has
to be taken into account when describing the electronic dynamics of solids. A quantized plasma oscillation of a conductor, with
a typical energy E
p
= h
p
, is known as a plasmon.
II. SIMPLE MODELS
To estimate the plasma frequency, consider the most simple model of a conductor: that of a gas of electrons of number density
n
0
moving freely in a homogeneous positively charged background and interacting with the self consistent eld

E. If somehow
a charge accumulation Q localized in a given region R is produced due to a compression or a rarefaction of the electron gas
(Fig. 1), it produces far away a Coulomb eld E(r) = Qr/r
3
where the vectorr goes from R towards the observation position.
Each electron becomes accelerated according to Newtons second law, md
2
r/dt
2
=e

E(r, t), where m and e are the electronic

mass and charge respectively, so that

j(r, t)/t = (n
0
e
2
/m)

E(r, t), where

j = n
0
edr/dt is the electric current density at r.
Integrating over a large closed surface that surrounds completely the charge we obtain (d/dt)

da

j = (ne
2
/m)

da

E,
which becomes a simple differential equation for the charge,
d
2
Q
dt
2
=
4ne
2
m
Q, (1)
by introducing the continuity equation

da

j = dQ/dt and Gauss law

da

E = 4Q. Its solution Q(t) = Q(0)e

i
p
t
oscillates with the bulk plasma frequency

p
=
_
4ne
2
m
_
1/2
. (2)
Typical values for the energy of a quantized plasma wave or plasmon are E
p
= h
p
515eV.
If the charge were located at the surface of a semiinnite conductor, half of the eld lines would be in vacuum and would
induce no electric current (Fig. 2), the current ow across the surface would then be cut in half, and the charge would obey
d
2
Q
dt
2
=

2
p
2
Q, (3)
instead of Eq. (1). The solution Q(t) = Q(0)e
i
s
t
is an oscillation with the surface plasma frequency

s
=

p

2
. (4)
2
R
Q
FIG. 1: Charged region R (gray) in a homogeneous conductor. The charge Q contained within the Gaussian surface (dashed circle) produces
a eld

E(r, t) (wide arrows) which induces a current density

j(r, t) (thin arrows) which ows across , modifying Q over time t and yielding a
plasma oscillation.
R
Q

FIG. 2: Charged region R at the surface of a semiinnite conductor. The eld

E(r, t) (wide arrows) is as in Fig. 1 but the current density

j(r, t) (narrow arrows) is only induced in the half space within the conductor. Thus, there is charge ow only across half the Gaussian surface
(dashed circle).
As a last simple example, consider a small spherical metallic particle which is initially perturbed by displacing all of its
electrons

(Fig. 3). Thus, there would be an accumulation of electrons on one hemisphere and a deciency of electrons on the
other hemisphere. The ensuing surface charge =

P n produces a homogeneous electric depolarization eld

E = (4/3)

P,
where

P =n
0
e

is the electric polarization. This eld accelerates the charges, according to md

2
/dt
2
=eE, which becomes
d
2
dt
2

2
p
3

(5)
upon substitution. Its solution (t) = (0)e
i
d
t
oscillates with the dipolar surface plasma frequency

d
=

p

3
. (6)
3

+
FIG. 3: Metallic sphere (solid circle) all of whose electrons are displaced the same distance

(short arrow), occupying a displaced region

(dashed circle), producing negative (top) and positive (bottom) surface charges (light gray). The interior (dark) remains neutral. The polariza-
tion (narrow arrows) and electric eld (wide arrows) within the sphere are shown schematically.
These examples show that different systems may have plasmons, that is, collective excitations that involve uctuations in
the charge density, with different frequencies which depend not only on the properties of the material but also on geometrical
properties such as size and shape.
III. DISPERSION RELATIONS
In the previous section we showed a few simple models that predict charge oscillations of frequencies
p
,
s
, and
d
at
ininite, semiinnite, and small conductors. In this section we will calculate these quantitities in a more general context, and we
will obtain expressions which are independent of the particular model made for the system.
A. Bulk Plasmons
According to Gauss law,

D = 0 (7)
in the absence of external charge, where

D =

E +4

P is the displacement eld and

P the polarization. Within a linear homoge-
neous isotropic material, the displacement may be written in terms of the electric eld,

D =

E, (8)
where the dielectric function is a property of the material. Thus, Gauss law implies that

E = 0. The trivial solution

E =4 =0 corresponds to the a null charge density within a homogeneous systemand a transverse electric eld. However,
there is a second frequently overlooked posibility, namely, that

E = 4 = 0 but = 0. Thus, the electric eld may have a

longitudinal contribution, and charge uctuations may appear within a solid, but only if the dielectric function is null.
Matter responds differently to electromagnetic elds of different frequencies or colors, as demonstrated by Newtons prisms
experiments. Consequently, the dielectric function depends on the frequency, i.e.,

. According to the discussion above,

charge oscillations may exist but only for those frequencies for which

= 0. (9)
As an application, we consider the Drude model, in which electrons are assumed to respond freely and independently to a
perturbing electric eld. We expect that independent electrons would be unable to support collective oscillations. However,
4
the electron-electron interaction is partially incorporated into the Drude model by identifying the perturbing eld with the self-
consistent electric eld

E, which includes the mean value of the eld produced by the electrons themselves, and not as an
external eld. The Drude dielectric function is

= 1

2
p

2
, (10)
and leads to plasma oscillations at its zero

D
=
p
. (11)
Dissipation may be incorporated by changing
2

2
+i/ in Eq. (10), where is the mean time between electronic
collisions.
Plasmon excitations within a solid are possible only due to the temporal dispersion of the dielectric function as the dielectric
constant may only vanish at some nite frequencies but never in the static limit. The meaning of dispersion may be understood
if we introduce the frequency dependence explicitely into Eq. (8), i.e.,

D

, and Fourier transform using the convolution

theorem,

D(t) =

dt

(t t

E(t

). (12)
The Fourier transform of

yields the delay dependent dielectric function (t t

) which is a measure of the response

D(t) of
the system at time t to a perturbing eld

E(t

) which acts at a time t

. Causality demands (t t

) = 0 whenever t

> t. Just
as the response of the system at a given time depends on the excitation at previous times, it is also the case that the response
of the system at a given positionr depends on the excitation at nearby positionsr

and not only at r. Thus, Eq. (12) should be

generalized to become

D(r, t) =

dt

d
3
r

(r,r

, t t

E(r

, t

). (13)
The dependence of onr andr

is known as spatial dispersion or non-locality. Within a homogeneous system depends only

on the interval r r

between the excitation and the observation point, so that the RHS of Eq. (13) becomes a convolution. A
space and time Fourier transform yields then a simple algebraic relation

D
q
=
q

E
q
; (14)
non-locality is equivalent to a dependence of the dielectric response
q
on the wavevector q besides the frequency . Within
non-local media q denes a prefered direction even within isotropic media. Therefore, the non-local response of the system to a
transverse eld

E
T
q
q and to a longitudinal eld

E
q
=

E
L
q
q might differ, so we write

D
T
q
=
T
q

E
T
q
, (15)

D
L
q
=
L
q

E
L
q
, (16)
instead of the single Eq. (14).
Identifying iq in Fourier space, we now deduce from Eq. (7) the dispersion relation =
q
vs. q of bulk plasmons,
given implicitly by

L
q
= 0, (17)
i.e., for a given wavevector q longitudinal waves may propagate provided their frequency
q
is such that the longitudinal
dielectric function vanishes.
Notice that plasmons do not propagate within local media as their group velocity v
g
=
q

q
vanishes, but in a spatially
dispersive medium, the frequency of the plasmon does depend on the wavevector and plasmons may propagate and transport
energy. A simple model that illustrates plasmon propagation is the hydrodynamic model, a generalization of the Drude model, in
which the conduction electrons feel the forces due to variations of the pressure beyond their interaction with the self-consistent
eld. The pressure is mainly due to the Pauli principle which allows only one fermion to occupy each electronic state. To
increase the density of an electronic uid, higher energy levels have to be occupied and this requires work. The hydrodynamic
longitudinal dielectric function is

H
q
= 1

2
p

2
q
2
, (18)
5
0
0.5
1
1.5
2
2.5
0 0.5 1 1.5 2 2.5

p
q/k
F
FIG. 4: Dispersion relation for bulk plasmons calculated for Na within the hydrodynamic model (solid). The shadowed area between dashed
lines corresponds to the region where plasmons might decay due to excitation of electron hole pairs.
where is a measure of the compressibility of a Fermion gas of density n
0
. A calculation of assuming local equilibrium of the
electron gas yields =
_
1/3v
F
, where v
F
= hk
F
/m is the Fermi velocity, hk
F
=

2mE
F
is the Fermi momentum, and E
F
is the
Fermi energy, i.e., the kinetic energy of the highest occupied state. More elaborate calculations are consistent with a frequency
dependent with the value =
_
3/5v
F
at typical plasmon frequencies. The dispersion relation (17) of bulk plasmons becomes
= (
2
p
+
2
q
2
)
1/2
, (19)
which we illustrate schematically in Fig. 4.
Notice that we may also solve Eq. (19) for q for a given value of . For <
p
the solution is imaginary, meaning that charge
uctuations may exist for frequencies below
p
, but they do not propagate. Rather, they decay exponentially within a distance

s
= 1/|q|. In the static limit, we obtain
s
=
TF
from Eq. (19), where
TF
= /
P
is the Thomas-Fermi screening length.
One of the main drawbacks of the hydrodynamic model is that it ignores the single particle excitations. For a free independent
electron conductor, these consist of electrons which are taken from occupied states with momentum h

k within the Fermi sphere

(i.e., hk < hk
F
) and excited into empty states with momentum h(

k +q) outside of the Fermi sphere, leaving a hole in the initial

state. The momentum of these electron-hole (e h) pairs is hq and its energy h
2
[(

k +q)
2
k
2
]/2m may take a quasi-continuum
of values bounded by h
2
(q
2
2qk
F
)/2m. Plasmons with wavevector q and energy h within these bounds, displayed in Fig. 4
by dashed lines, are short lived as they may decay through excitation of e h pairs, a mechanism known as Landau damping.
Thus, plasmons may exist as well dened collective excitations only within a short range of wavevectors and frequencies.
An alternative formulation for the calculation of the plasmon dispersion may be obtained from the inhomogeneous Gauss
law, which we may write in Fourier space with the help of Eq. (16) as

q
=

ext
q

L
q
, (20)
where
ext
= iq

D
q
/4 is the external and = iq

E
q
/4 the total charge density within the conductor. Thus, we may
interpret the inverse dielectric function 1/
L
q
as a charge-charge response function. A nite response may be obtained from
an innitesimal excitation, i.e., the system may oscillate spontaneously, only when the response function has a pole. Thus, the
plasmon dispersion relation is given by the pole of 1/
L
q
, which, naturally, coincides with Eq. (17).
B. Surface Plasmons
As suggested by the remarks above, we may obtain the normal modes of an arbitrary system by searching for the poles of
its response functions. Consider an electromagnetic wave of amplitude E
i
impinging on the surface of an isotropic semiinnite
6
k

Vacuum Metal
FIG. 5: Electromagnetic wave incident on the surface of a semiinnite system. We show the wavevectors of the incident, reected and
transmitted waves and their perpendicular and parallel components.
conductor. (Fig. 5). The wave sets in motion the charges within the conductor which radiate a reected wave of amplitude E
r
.
For s (transverse electric) and p (transverse magnetic) incident polarizations, the reected wave have the same polarization, so
we may dene scalar reection amplitudes r
s
= E
r
s
/E
i
s
and r
p
= E
r
p
/E
i
p
, given by Fresnels formulae,
r
s
=
q

+k

, (21)
r
p
=

+k

, (22)
where q = (q

, q

) is the wavevector of the incident wave in vacuum and

k = (

, k

) is the wavevector of the transmitted wave

into the metal. Snells law requires that

=q

and the electromagnetic wave equations in vacuum and within the metal require
q

=
_
_

c
_
2
q
2

_
1/2
, (23)
and
k

=
_

c
_
2
q
2

_
1/2
. (24)
The reection amplitudes (21) and (22) have the nature of surface response functions and therefore, their poles yield the
surface normal modes of the system. We note rst that conservation of energy apparently implies that the reectances R
s
=|r
s
|
2
and R
p
=|r
p
|
2
ought to be smaller than unity, as it is not possible to reect more energy than is incident upon the surface. Thus,
it would seem that r
s
and r
p
can have no pole. However, if q

>/c, i.e., outside of the light cone, Eq. (23) yields an imaginary
value for q

. In this case, the incident and reected waves do not propagate but are rather evanescent waves each of which
carries no energy along the normal to the surface. Only in this situation can the reection amplitudes display poles. As both the
reected and transmitted waves should decay away from the surface, the signs of Imq

and Imk

should be equal to each other.

Eqs. (21) and (22) imply that there is no s polarized mode and that a p polarized mode is only possible if

< 0. Substituting
Eqs. (23) and (24) into the normal mode condition

+k

= 0, we obtain the surface plasmon dispersion relation

q

=

c
_

+1
_
1/2
. (25)
In Fig. 6 we show the dispersion relation of surface plasmons (SP) calculated from Eq. (25) with a Drude dielectric function.
The dispersion relation lies outside of the light cone, for large q

, approaches asymptotically a constant frequency given by

s
( Eq. (4)) and for small q

it approaches the light cone.

7
q

=n/c q

=/c
=
s
q

c/
p

p
3 2.5 2 1.5 1 0.5 0
1
0.8
0.6
0.4
0.2
0
FIG. 6: SP dispersion relation calculated within the Drude model (solid). The asymptotic frequency
s
=
p
/

2, the vacuum light cone

q

= /c and the light cone of glass n = 1.5 are indicated by dashed lines.
For very large wavevectors q

/c the phase velocity of the SP v = /q

becomes much smaller than the speed of light

c, so that the retardation of the electromagnetic eld may be ignored. It is common to set c = in this non-retarded region
and treat the problem as quasi-static, i.e., solving the equations of electrostatics. In this limit, q

iq

and therefore the

reection amplitude (22) becomes
r
p
g =

+1
. (26)
The non-retarded surface response function g is the quotient between the external and the induced scalar potentials, and its
expression (26) may be recognized as the image charge induced within a conductor by the presence of a unit point charge within
vacuum. The pole of g,

=1, (27)
yields the non-retarded SP frequency. This equation generalizes the previous non-retarded result (4) to arbitrary materials.
More rened microscopic theories of metallic surfaces should account for the thin but nite transition region or selvedge
where the properties change smoothly from those of the bulk metal to those of vacuum, and for the spatial dispersion of the
metal. Their effect may be characterized within the semiinnite jellium model by the distance from the nominal surface of the
metal to the centroid of the induced charge density,
d

dzz(z)

dz(z)
. (28)
The response function g depends onq

and and may be written as

g
q

+(1

)q

1+

+(1

)q

, (29)
with poles at

+1 = (

1)q

. (30)
Using the Drude model for the local limit

of the bulk dielectric function we obtain

=
s
_
1q

s
q

/2. (31)
8
d
1 2 3
FIG. 7: Reection of an electromagnetic wave from a thin lm 2 of width d bounded by media 1 and 3.
Thus, instead of reaching an asymptotic value
s
, which is actually a bulk property determined by

, the non-retarded SP has

a dispersion determined by d

, a quantity that is very sensitive to the surface condition. The sign of the dispersion is positive or
negative corresponding to whether the induced surface charge lies inside (d

< 0) or outside (d

> 0) of the metal. The latter is

the case for simple metals.
C. Thin lms
The reection amplitude of a thin lm may be calculated from that of each of its surfaces by summing the amplitudes of the
multiply reected waves. Thus, for the thin lm of Fig. (7) we have
r = r
12
+t
12
r
23
t
21
e
2ik

n=0
_
r
21
r
23
e
2ik

d
_
n
(32)
= r
12
+
t
12
r
23
t
21
e
2ik

d
1r
21
r
23
e
2ik

d
, (33)
where each succesive term in the geometric series corresponds to an additional trip from the 1-2 interface towards the 2-3
interface and back, k

is the normal wavevector within the lm and r

ab
and t
ab
denote the reection amplitude of the surface ab
for a wave moving from medium a towards b. The dispersion relation of the thin lm SP is then given implicitely by the poles
of r
r
21
r
23
e
2ik

d
= 1. (34)
For an unsupported lm r
21
= r
23
=r
12
and in the unretarded regime we obtain using Eq. (26) for r
21
,
_

+1
_
2
= e
2q

d
, (35)
with solutions

=
_
coth(q

d/2) (even)
tanh(q

d/2) (odd).
(36)
according to the parity of the surface charge. In Fig. 8 we illustrate the dispersion relation of unretarded SPs within a thin
unsupported lm described by the Drude model. Each surface supports by itself a SP of frequency
s
. However, the eld of
9

s
odd
even
q

p
6 5 4 3 2 1 0
1
0.9
0.8
0.7
0.6
0.5
0.4
0.3
0.2
0.1
0
FIG. 8: Dispersion relation of the odd and even SPs of a thin metallic lm described by the Drude model. The SP frequency of a single surface
is indicated by a dashed line.
each SP penetrates the lm a distance 1/q

and thus may couple to the SP on the opposite surface, lifting the degeneracy. For
small wavevectors, the odd coupled mode oscillates with the bulk plasma frequency
p
, while the even coupled mode acquires
an acoustical dispersion propagating with speed v
s
= /q

=
p
d/2 = 2n
0
de
2
/m, i.e.,
v
s
= 2n
s
e
2
/m, (37)
where n
s
= n
0
d is the number of electrons per unit area in the lm.
D. Spherical particles
The scalar potential
ind
lm
(r, , ) = C
ind
lm
Y
lm
()r
l1
produced at r > a by the charges induced at the surface of a metallic
sphere of radius a subject to an external potential
ext
lm
(r, , ) =C
ext
lm
Y
lm
(, )r
l
with angular momentum lm may be obtained in
the non-retarded limit by solving Laplaces equation
2
= 0 within the sphere and in the surrounding vacuum and imposing
boundary conditions at r = a. This procedure yields the response function of the sphere,
S
lm

C
ind
lm
C
ext
lm
=

+(l +1)/l
a
2l+1
, (38)
for each value of l and m. Thus, the collective normal modes of the sphere, i.e., its multipolar surface plasmons, are given by
the zeroes of the denominator,

=
l +1
l
. (39)
For the Drude model without dissipation we obtain
=
_
l
2l +1

p
. (40)
This results yields
d
for the case l = 1. Thus, Eq. (39) is a generalization of Eq. (6) to conductors with arbitrary dielectric
function and yields modes with arbitrary angular momentum l. Notice that in the limit l , Eq. (39) coincides with the SP
relation for a at surface (27).
10
v

F
FIG. 9: An external charge (black dot) moving withi speedv within the bulk of a conductor (light gray), induces an excentric screening charge
(dark gray) which produces a desaccelerating force

F.

F
FIG. 10: An external electron (black dot) collides with the surface of a metal (light gray) where it is specularly reected. Along its trajectory
(dashed) it interacts with its image (dark gray) being accelerated before the collision and decelerated afterwards by different forces (arrows),
loosing energy and momentum in the process.
IV. OBSERVATION
As plasmons are charge oscillations, they may couple to charged particles. A charged particle shot through the bulk of a
conductor with velocity v induces screening charges of the opposite sign in its neighborhood. However, as the projectile is in
motion and there is some delay before the screening is fully developed, the center of the screening charge lags behind the position
of the projectile, as shown schematically in Fig. (9). Thus, the attraction force towards the screening charge slows down the
projectile, taking energy and momentum from it. Quantum mechanically, the particle looses energy h and momentum hq due
to the emission of plasmons with frequency and wavevector q. Only plasmons with velocities that match that of the particle,
i.e., with =qv are emitted, and with a probability per unit time which is proportional to the loss function Im(1/
L
q
). The
loss function displays a sharp peak whenever (q, ) approaches the plasmon dispersion relation (17). For example, plasmon
excitation may be observed with electron energy loss spectroscopy (EELS), in which high energy electrons are shot into a
metallic thin lm in a transmission electron microscope and the intensity of the electrons which are inelastically scattered into
different directions is measured.
Consider now a relatively low energy electron which collides with the surface of a conductor where it is specularly reected.
On its way towards the surface and back it induces screening charges at the surface which produce a eld which acts back on
the projectile. According to image theory, the eld may be calculated in terms of a ctituous image charge within the metal.
The image charge is not a point charge and it lags behind the ideal image position due to the delay in the development of the
screening. Thus, the energy and momentum gained from the image force as the projectile approaches the surfaces is smaller
than those lost as the projectile rebounds (Fig. 10). Quantum mechanically, the electron losses energy h and momentum hq

along the surface by emitting surface plasmons with a probability proportional to the surface loss function Img
q

. The loss
function displays a sharp peak whenever (q

, ) approaches the surface plasmon dispersion relation (30) which may therefore
be measured with low energy reection EELS.
Besides being excited by external charges, plasmons may also be excited by electromagnetic elds. The electric eld of p-
polarized light impinging on the surface of a metal may push charge against the surface, and the resulting charge accumulation
may subsecuently propagate towards the bulk as a plasmon or along the surface as a surface plasmon. In the former case, the
11

FIG. 11: Attenuated total reection experiment. P polarized light is incident at an angle on the surface of a glass semicylinder where it
is totally reected(solid arrow). The evanescent transmitted eld (short dashes) reaches the surface of the metal, where it may excite an SP
(dashed), attenuating the total reection.
reectance is slightly reduced below that given by the Fresnel amplitude (22) at frequencies above
p
. In order to couple to
surface plasmons, the incoming wave should have a wavevector q

> /c. This may be accomplished in an attenuated total

reection experiment (ATR) in which the surface is illuminated through a glass prism with an index of refraction n >1 (Fig. 11),
in which the light line n/c extends beyond that of vacuum (Fig. 6). By varying and/or the region /c q

=n(/c)sin
n/c may be explored (Fig. 6). The reectance of the system is close to 1 due to total reection in the glass-air interface, except
for a sharp dip when (q

, ) crosses the dispersion relation of the SP (25). SPs may also be excited at a rough surface, whereq

is no longer a conserved quantity and SPs may couple to ordinady light. The electric eld close to the surface may be amplied
several orders of magnitude due to SP excitations. This amplication is partly responsible for the enhanced Raman scattering
by molecules adsorbed at rough metallic surfaces.
V. FINAL REMARKS
Plasmons, are present and have been studied in manifold systems: quasi two, one and zero dimensional structures, in the
presence of strong static electric and magnetic elds, in small particles of various shapes, etc. Their frequency may be obtained
from the poles of appropriate response functions, typically, the total charge-external charge response, commonly identied with
the inverse dielectric operator =
1

ext
. The operator
1
may be represented by a matrix (
1
) introducing a suitable basis
|, and each of the matrix elements (
1
)

depends on frequency and may depend on other conserved quantities, such as

momentum or angular momentum, if they are present. Plasmons are then given by the poles of the (
1
), or equivalently, from
det(

) = 0. Plasmons play a fundamental role in the screening of electromagnetic elds within matter and may be detected
through inelastic scattering of charged particles or through resonant scattering of light.
1
Halevi, Peter (ed.), Spatial Dispersion in Solids and Plasmas (North Holland, Amsterdam, 1992).
2
Halevi, Peter (ed.), Photonic Probes of Surfaces, (North Holland, Amsterdam, 1995).
3
Ibach, H. and Mills, D. L., Electron Energy Loss Spectroscopy and Surface Vibrations (Academic, New york, 1982).
4
Ibach, H. and Luth, H., Solid-State Physics: An Introduction to Principles of Materials Science 2nd ed. (Springer, Berlin, 1995)
5
Kittel, C., Introduction to Solid State Physics (Wiley, New York, 1953).
6
Kittel, C., Quantum Theory of Solids (Wiley, New York, 1963).
7
Liebsch, A., Electronic Excitations at Metal Surfaces (Plenum, New York, 1997).
8
Raether, H., Excitation of Plasmons and Interband Transitions by Electrons (Springer, Berlin, 1980).
9
Raether, H., Surface Plasmons (Springer, Berlin, 1988).