Plasmons and near-field amplification in double-layer graphene

We study the optical properties of double-layer graphene for linearly polarized evanescent modes and discuss the in-phase and out-of-phase plasmon modes for both, longitudinal and transverse polarization. We find a energy for which reflection is zero, leading to exponentially amplified transmitted modes similar to what happens in left-handed materials. For layers with equal densities $n=10^{12}$cm$^{-2}$, we find a typical layer separation of $d\approx500\mu$m to detect this amplification for transverse polarization which may serve as an indirect observation of transverse plasmons. When the two graphene layers lie on different chemical potentials, the exponential amplification either follows the in-phase or out-of-phase plasmon mode depending on the order of the low- and high-density layer. This opens up the possibility of a tunable near-field amplifier or switch.Comment: 9 pages, 8 figure

Mesoscopic ensembles of polar bosons in triple-well potentials

Mesoscopic dipolar Bose gases in triple-well potentials offer a minimal system for the analysis of the long-range character of the dipole-dipole interactions. We show that this long-range character may be clearly revealed by a variety of possible ground-state phases. In addition, an appropriate control of short-range and dipolar interactions may lead to novel scenarios for the dynamics of atoms and polar molecules in lattices, including the dynamical creation of mesoscopic Schr\"odinger cats, which may be employed as a source of highly-nonclassical states for Heisenberg-limited interferometry.Comment: 4 pages, 3 figures. Identical to the published version, including supplemental material (4 pages, 6 figures)

Contact values of the radial distribution functions of additive hard-sphere mixtures in d dimensions: A new proposal

The contact values $g_{ij}(\sigma_{ij})$ of the radial distribution functions of a $d$-dimensional mixture of (additive) hard spheres are considered. A `universality' assumption is put forward, according to which $g_{ij}(\sigma_{ij})=G(\eta, z_{ij})$, where $G$ is a common function for all the mixtures of the same dimensionality, regardless of the number of components, $\eta$ is the packing fraction of the mixture, and $z_{ij}$ is a dimensionless parameter that depends on the size distribution and the diameters of spheres $i$ and $j$. For $d=3$, this universality assumption holds for the contact values of the Percus--Yevick approximation, the Scaled Particle Theory, and, consequently, the Boublik--Grundke--Henderson--Lee--Levesque approximation. Known exact consistency conditions are used to express $G(\eta,0)$, $G(\eta,1)$, and $G(\eta,2)$ in terms of the radial distribution at contact of the one-component system. Two specific proposals consistent with the above conditions (a quadratic form and a rational form) are made for the $z$-dependence of $G(\eta,z)$. For one-dimensional systems, the proposals for the contact values reduce to the exact result. Good agreement between the predictions of the proposals and available numerical results is found for $d=2$, 3, 4, and 5.Comment: 10 pages, 11 figures; Figure 1 changed; Figure 5 is new; New references added; accepted for publication in J. Chem. Phy

Plasmonics in topological insulators: Spin-charge separation, the influence of the inversion layer, and phonon-plasmon coupling

We demonstrate via three examples that topological insulators (TI) offer a new platform for plasmonics. First, we show that the collective excitations of a thin slab of a TI display spin-charge separation. This gives rise to purely charge-like optical and purely spin-like acoustic plasmons, respectively. Second, we argue that the depletion layer mixes Dirac and Schr\"odinger electrons which can lead to novel features such as high modulation depths and interband plasmons. The analysis is based on an extension of the usual formula for optical plasmons that depends on the slab width and on the dielectric constant of the TI. Third, we discuss the coupling of the TI surface phonons to the plasmons and find strong hybridisation especially for samples with large slab widths.Comment: 37 pages, 7 figure