We present a theoretical investigation on the propagation of surface waves on the magnetized degenerate electron plasma half-space with spin effects. Using magnetohydrodynamic model with quantum effects due to the Bohm potential, Fermi degenerate pressure and electron spin, the dispersion relations of surface plasmon polaritons (SPPs) are derived. The dispersion relation of electrostatic surface waves is also obtained by taking electrostatic limit.
IntroductionThe investigation on surface waves began with the pioneering theoretical works by Trivelpiece and Gould (1959). They restricted their attentions to electrostatic surface waves on cold cylindrical plasma columns. The effect of a finite temperature on the dispersion relation of electrostatic surface waves was studied by Ritchie (1963), who applied a simple hydrodynamical model, and Guernsey (1969), who adopted the kinetic theory. Vedenov provided a general dispersion relation without limiting to electrostatic approximation, which showed that in cold plasma half-space, surface plasma polaritons existed with frequencies ranging from ω spps → ω P / √ 2 down to ω spps = 0 (Vedenov 1965).Recently, the quantum plasmas has been a rapidly growing field of research due to its promising applications in quantum well (Manfredi and Hervieux 2007), plasmonics (Atwater 2007), spintronics (Wolf et al. 2001), astrophysics (Palmer et al. 2005) and ultra-cold plasmas (Robinson et al. 2000). Since the surface plasmon is the collective electrostatic excitation of free electrons near a plasma dielectric surface, the quantum effects will consequentially affect the propagation properties of the surface plasmon. The surface plasmon (SP)-polariton (SPP) on the vacuum-quantum plasma or quantum plasma-quantum plasma interface have aroused wide attention. Relevant researches include surface Langmuir oscillations in semi-bounded quantum plasmas (Chang and Jung 2008), electrostatic/electromagnetic modes on the quantum plasma half-space (Lazar et al. 2007), propagation of the transverse electric surface modes on semi-bounded quantum plasma in the presence of external magnetic field (Mohamed 2010), self-excited surface plasmon polaritons at the interface of counterstreaming plasmas (Lazar et al. 2009), and the surface waves on the relativistic quantum plasma half-space (Zhu et al. 2013). Meanwhile, some works on wave phenomena in bounded plasmas are investigated by the Trivelpiece-Gould (TG) modes in cylindrical geometry, such as rotating field confinement of pure electron plasmas using TG Modes (Anderegg et al. 1998), dispersion properties of Trivelpiece-Gould waves in periodic