Nonlinear Aspects of Quantum Plasma Physics: Nanoplasmonics and Nanostructures in Dense Plasmas

Abstract

We present a short review of recent developments in nonlinear quantum plasma physics, including quantum hydrodynamic and effective nonlinear shrödinger equation formalisms, for describing collective phenomena in quantum plasmas. As examples we discuss simulation studies of the formation and dynamics of dark solitons and vortices, and of nonlinear interactions between intense circularly polarized electromagnetic (CPEM) waves and electron plasma oscillations (EPOs) in dense in quantum electron plasmas. The electron dynamics of dark solitons and vortices is governed by a pair of equations comprising the nonlinear Schrödinger and Poisson equations. Both dark solitons and singly charged electron vortices are robust, and the latter tend to form pairs of oppositely charged vortices. The two-dimensional quantum electron vortex pairs survive during collisions under the change of partners. The dynamics of the CPEM waves is governed by a nonlinear Schrödinger equation, which is nonlinearly coupled with the Schrödinger equation of the EPOs via the relativistic ponderomotive force, the relativistic electron mass increase in the CPEM field, and the electron density fluctuations. The present governing equations in one spatial dimension admit stationary solutions in the form dark envelope solitons. The nonlinear equations admit the modulational instability of an intense CPEM pump wave against EPOs, leading to the formation and trapping of localized CPEM wave envelopes in the electron density holes that are associated with positive potential profiles.