AUTHOR=Liu Lufang , Xu Yue , Zhu Jiajie , Wang Pan , Tong Limin , Krasavin Alexey V. TITLE=Excitation of Surface Plasmons by Inelastic Electron Tunneling JOURNAL=Frontiers in Physics VOLUME=8 YEAR=2020 URL=https://www.frontiersin.org/journals/physics/articles/10.3389/fphy.2020.00251 DOI=10.3389/fphy.2020.00251 ISSN=2296-424X ABSTRACT=

Surface plasmons are usually excited by diffraction-limited optical methods with the use of bulky optical components, which greatly limits the miniaturization and chip-scale high-density integration of plasmonic devices. By integrating a plasmonic nanostructure with a tunnel junction, plasmonic modes in the nanostructure can be directly excited by low-energy tunneling electrons with the advantages including an ultra-small footprint and an ultra-fast speed. In this mini-review, recent progress in the electric excitation of localized and propagating surface plasmons by inelastic electron tunneling is overviewed.