Role of diffusive surface scattering in nonlocal plasmonics.

The recent generalised nonlocal optical response (GNOR) theory for plasmonics is analysed, and its main input parameter, namely the complex hydrodynamic convection-diffusion constant, is quantified in terms of enhanced Landau damping due to diffusive surface scattering of electrons at the surface of the metal. GNOR has been successful in describing plasmon damping effects, in addition to the frequency shifts originating from induced-charge screening, through a phenomenological electron diffusion term implemented into the traditional hydrodynamic Drude model of nonlocal plasmonics. Nevertheless, its microscopic derivation and justification is still missing. Here we discuss how the inclusion of a diffusion-like term in standard hydrodynamics can serve as an efficient vehicle to describe Landau damping without resorting to computationally demanding quantum-mechanical calculations, and establish a direct link between this term and the Feibelman d parameter for the centroid of charge. Our approach provides a recipe to connect the phenomenological fundamental GNOR parameter to a frequency-dependent microscopic surface-response function. We therefore tackle one of the principal limitations of the model, and further elucidate its range of validity and limitations, thus facilitating its proper application in the framework of nonclassical plasmonics.

Plasmons in Dimensionally Mismatched Coulomb Coupled Graphene Systems.

We calculate the plasmon dispersion relation for Coulomb coupled metallic armchair graphene nanoribbons and doped monolayer graphene. The crossing of the plasmon curves, which occurs for uncoupled 1D and 2D systems, is split by the interlayer Coulomb coupling into a lower and an upper plasmon branch. The upper branch exhibits an unusual behavior with end points at finite q. Accordingly, the structure factor shows either a single or a double peak behavior, depending on the plasmon wavelength. The new plasmon structure is relevant to recent experiments, its properties can be controlled by varying the system parameters and be used in plasmonic applications.

Thermally Driven Pure Spin and Valley Currents via the Anomalous Nernst Effect in Monolayer Group-VI Dichalcogenides.

The spin and valley-dependent anomalous Nernst effects are analyzed for monolayer MoS_{2} and other group-VI dichalcogenides. We find that pure spin and valley currents can be generated perpendicular to the applied thermal gradient in the plane of these two-dimensional materials. This effect provides a versatile platform for applications of spin caloritronics. A spin current purity factor is introduced to quantify this effect. When time reversal symmetry is violated, e.g., two-dimensional materials on an insulating magnetic substrate, a dip-peak feature appears for the total Nernst coefficient. For the dip state it is found that carriers with only one spin and from one valley are driven by the temperature gradient.

Surface-enhanced Raman spectroscopy: nonlocal limitations.

Giant field enhancement and field singularities are a natural consequence of the commonly employed local-response framework. We show that a more general nonlocal treatment of the plasmonic response leads to new and possibly fundamental limitations on field enhancement with important consequences for our understanding of surface-enhanced Raman spectroscopy (SERS). The intrinsic length scale of the electron gas serves to smear out assumed field singularities, leaving the SERS enhancement factor finite, even for geometries with infinitely sharp features. For silver nanogroove structures, mimicked by periodic arrays of half-cylinders (up to 120 nm in radius), we find no enhancement factors exceeding 10 orders of magnitude (10(10)).

Non-markovian model of photon-assisted dephasing by electron-phonon interactions in a coupled quantum-dot-cavity system.

We investigate the influence of electron-phonon interactions on the dynamical properties of a quantum-dot-cavity QED system. We show that non-markovian effects in the phonon reservoir lead to strong changes in the dynamics, arising from photon-assisted dephasing processes, not present in markovian treatments. A pronounced consequence is the emergence of a phonon induced spectral asymmetry when detuning the cavity from the quantum-dot resonance. The asymmetry can only be explained when considering the polaritonic quasiparticle nature of the quantum-dot-cavity system. Furthermore, a temperature induced reduction of the light-matter coupling strength is found to be relevant in interpreting experimental data, especially in the strong coupling regime.

Localized edge vibrations and edge reconstruction by joule heating in graphene nanostructures.

Control of the edge topology of graphene nanostructures is critical to graphene-based electronics. A means of producing atomically smooth zigzag edges using electronic current has recently been demonstrated in experiments [Jia, Science 323, 1701 (2009)10.1126/science.1166862]. We develop a microscopic theory for current-induced edge reconstruction using density functional theory. Our calculations provide evidence for localized vibrations at edge interfaces involving unpassivated armchair edges. We demonstrate that these vibrations couple to the current, estimate their excitation by Joule heating, and argue that they are the likely cause of the reconstructions observed in the experiments.

Coulomb drag in coherent mesoscopic systems.

We present a theory for Coulomb drag between two mesoscopic systems. Our formalism expresses the drag in terms of scattering matrices and wave functions, and its range of validity covers both ballistic and disordered systems. The consequences can be worked out either by analytic means, such as the random matrix theory, or by numerical simulations. We show that Coulomb drag is sensitive to localized states, which usual transport measurements do not probe. For chaotic 2D systems we find a vanishing average drag, with a nonzero variance. Disordered 1D wires show a finite drag, with a large variance, giving rise to a possible sign change of the induced current.