title: Surface plasmon amplification by stimulated emission of radiation: quantum generation of coherent surface plasmons in nanosystems.
abstract: 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.
authors.affiliation: School of Physics and Astronomy, Raymond and Beverly Sackler Faculty of Exact Sciences, Tel Aviv University, Tel Aviv, 69978, Israel. bergman@post.tau.ac.il
authors.forename: David J
authors.initials: DJ
authors.lastname: Bergman
authors.forename: Mark I
authors.initials: MI
authors.lastname: Stockman