David J. Bergman^{1 *} and Mark I. Stockman^{2 †}

¹School of Physics and Astronomy, Raymond and Beverly Sackler Faculty of Exact Sciences, Tel Aviv University, Tel Aviv, 69978, Israel

²Department of Physics and Astronomy, Georgia State University, Atlanta, Georgia 30303

Received 15 September 2002; published 14 January 2003

We make a step towards quantum nanoplasmonics: surface plasmon fields of a nanosystem are quantized and their stimulated emission is considered. We introduce a quantum generator for surface plasmon quanta and consider the phenomenon of surface plasmon amplification by stimulated emission of radiation (spaser). Spaser generates temporally coherent high-intensity fields of selected surface plasmon modes that can be strongly localized on the nanoscale, including dark modes that do not couple to far-zone electromagnetic fields. Applications and related phenomena are discussed.

©2003 The American Physical Society

URL: http://link.aps.org/doi/10.1103/PhysRevLett.90.027402

DOI: 10.1103/PhysRevLett.90.027402

PACS: 78.67.–n, 42.50.–p, 78.20.Bh, 78.45.+h

^* Electronic address: bergman@post.tau.ac.il

^† Electronic addresses: mstockman@gsu.edu; http://www.phy-astr.gsu.edu/stockman