Vacuum-excited surface plasmon polaritons

International College and Department of Physics,Osaka University, Toyonaka, Osaka 560-0043, Japan(Dated: March 20, 2013)In a process analogous to photon-photon creation via the dynamical Casimir e ect (DCE), afterseparating Maxwell’s equations using Hertz vectors in a generalized Lorenz gauge, and which allowsfor both electric and magnetic time-dependent media, we discuss how surface plasmon polaritons(SPPs) can be created out of vacuum via the time-dependent variation of the medium. We ndthat vacuum excited SPPs dominate the photon creation rate for TM modes in a dielectric slab,modulated in time inside a cylindrical cavity. The possible experimental detection of vacuum SPPsis also discussed.