Metallic nanostructures exhibit a multitude of optical resonances associated with localized surface plasmon excitations. Recent observations of plasmonic phenomena at the sub-nanometre to atomic scale have stimulated the development of various sophisticated theoretical approaches for their description. Here instead we present a comparatively simple semiclassical generalized non-local optical response theory that unifies quantum pressure convection effects and induced charge diffusion kinetics, with a concomitant complex-valued generalized non-local optical response parameter. Our theory explains surprisingly well both the frequency shifts and size-dependent damping in individual metallic nanoparticles as well as the observed broadening of the crossover regime from bondingdipole plasmons to charge-transfer plasmons in metal nanoparticle dimers, thus unravelling a classical broadening mechanism that even dominates the widely anticipated short circuiting by quantum tunnelling. We anticipate that our theory can be successfully applied in plasmonics to a wide class of conducting media, including doped semiconductors and low-dimensional materials such as graphene.

Abstract:We derive an explicit formula for factorizing an n-point closed string amplitude into open string amplitudes. Our results are phrased in terms of a momentum kernel which in the limit of infinite string tension reduces to the corresponding field theory kernel. The same momentum kernel encodes the monodromy relations which lead to the minimal basis of color-ordered amplitudes in Yang-Mills theory. There are interesting consequences of the momentum kernel pertaining to soft limits of amplitudes. We also comment on surprising links between gravity and certain combinations of kinematic and color factors in gauge theory.

Excitation of localized and delocalized surface plasmon resonances can be used for turning excellent reflectors of visible light, such as gold and silver, into efficient absorbers, whose wavelength, polarization or angular bandwidths are however necessarily limited owing to the resonant nature of surface plasmon excitations involved. Nonresonant absorption has so far been achieved by using combined nano- and micro-structural surface modifications and with composite materials involving metal nanoparticles embedded in dielectric layers. Here we realize nonresonant light absorption in a well-defined geometry by using ultra-sharp convex metal grooves via adiabatic nanofocusing of gap surface plasmon modes excited by scattering off subwavelength-sized wedges. We demonstrate experimentally that two-dimensional arrays of sharp convex grooves in gold ensure efficient (>87%) broadband (450-850 nm) absorption of unpolarized light, reaching an average level of 96%. Efficient absorption of visible light by nanostructured metal surfaces open new exciting perspectives within plasmonics, especially for thermophotovoltaics.

General properties of retardation-based resonances involving slow surface plasmon-polariton (SPP) modes supported by metal nanostructures are considered. Explicit relations for the dispersion of SPP modes propagating along thin metal strips embedded in dielectric and in narrow gaps between metal surfaces are obtained. Strip and gap subwavelength resonant structures are compared with respect to the achievable scattering and local-field enhancements lending thereby their distinction as nano-antennas and nano-resonators, respectively. It is shown that, in the limit of extremely thin strips and narrow gaps, both structures exhibit the same Q factor of the resonance which is primarily determined by the complex dielectric function of metal.

We discuss monodromy relations between different color-ordered amplitudes in gauge theories. We show that Jacobi-like relations of Bern, Carrasco and Johansson can be introduced in a manner that is compatible with these monodromy relations. The Jacobilike relations are not the most general set of equations that satisfy this criterion. Applications to supergravity amplitudes follow straightforwardly through the KLT-relations. We explicitly show how the tree-level relations give rise to non-trivial identities at loop level.