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Updated: Jun 4, 2026

Determination of the Excitation and Coupling Rates Between Light Emitters and Surface Plasmon Polaritons
Published on: July 21, 2018
Quantum mechanical study of the coupling of plasmon excitations to atomic-scale electron transport
Peng Song1, Peter Nordlander, Shiwu Gao
1Institute of Physics, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing, China.
Abstract:
The coupling of optical excitation and electron transport through a sodium atom in a plasmonic dimer junction is investigated using time-dependent density functional theory. The optical absorption and dynamic conductance is determined as a function of gap size. Surface plasmons are found to couple to atomic-scale transport through several different channels including dipolar, multipolar, and charge transfer plasmon modes. These findings provide insight into subnanoscale couplings of plasmons and atoms, a subject of general interest in plasmonics and molecular electronics.
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