Thank you, Lou. Some interesting points for those who did not have a chance to look at the paper:
- The authors model electric field enhancement for an electromagnetic plane wave passing through a gap between two silver cylinders. - If E0 is the strength of the electric field of the incident wave and Ec is the strength of the electric field in the gap, Ec^2/E0^2 is a ratio they're using to describe the enhancement of the field as the wave travels through the gap. - For two cylinders of radius ~ 10nm and a gap ~ 1nm, the ratio Ec^2/E0^2 is 10000 for a wavelength ~ 390nm (ultraviolet). That seems like an interesting effect. Is this typical or unusual? It sounds like they're describing a magnifying glass. Some other interesting points: - The two cylinders can be considered a metal-dialectric-metal system; I read this to mean they form a potential barrier. - The two-cylinder system is considered with a view to a larger system of metal grains (e.g., nano powder). - The authors mention that it's difficult to model plasmon modes analytically. Concerning nickel (to take one of the systems that have been discussed), here are some close-ups of sintered nickel and nano powder, with legends that give the scales involved: - http://ars.sciencedirect.com/content/image/1-s2.0-S0378775301008886-gr2.jpg - http://www.pall.com/images/Microelectronics/mic_fg_nick_fig8.gif - http://i01.i.aliimg.com/photo/v0/115244835/Nickel_Nano_Powder.jpg One gets the impression the irregularities are fractal, and that you could zoom to smaller scales and see even more irregularities. I imagine light with a short wavelength could do some funny things in there. Eric On Thu, Apr 26, 2012 at 8:44 PM, <[email protected]> wrote: > A new paper, perhaps of interest to some. Maybe relevant to LENR - > > Localized surface plasmon modes in a system of two > interacting metallic cylinders > http://arxiv.org/pdf/1204.5773v1.pdf > > The simulations show enormous enhancement of incident e-m fields > between two parallel nanorods (radii ~ 50 nm, gap ~ 2 nm) > - with enhancement sensitive to frequency, metal, gap, ... > > If superfocusing of e-m fields by nanostructures is responsible for some > LENR, then characterizing their properties may show which are optimal. > > >
