Plasmon wakefields and dispersive properties of metallic nanostructures

S. Ali, H. Terças, J. T. Mendonça

Published 2010-12-04Version 1

We investigate the excitation of electrostatic wakefields in metallic nanostructures (nanowires) due to the propagation of a short electron pulse. For that purpose, a dispersive (nonlocal) dielectric response of the system is considered, accounting for both the finiteness of the system and the quantum (Bohm) difraction of the conduction electron band, generalizing the results obtained previously in the literature [Phys. Rev. Lett. \textbf{103}, 097403 (2009)]. We discuss on the stability conditions of wakefields and show that the underling mechanism can be useful to investigate new sources of radiation in the extreme-ultra-violet (XUV) range.