Optical Response of Finite-Thickness Ultrathin Plasmonic Films

We discuss the optical response peculiarities for ultrathin plasmonic films of finite lateral size. Due to their plasma frequency spatial dispersion caused by the spatial confinement of the electron motion, the film dielectric permittivity tensor is spatially dispersive as well and so nonlocal. Such a confinement induced nonlocality can result in peculiar magneto-optical effects. For example, the frequency dependence of the magnetic permeability of the film exhibits a sharp resonance structure shifting to the red as the film aspect ratio increases. The properly tuned ultrathin plasmonic films of finite lateral size can feature the negative refraction effect in the IR frequency range. We discuss how to control these magneto-optical properties and show that they can be tuned by adjusting the film chemical composition, plasmonic material quality, the aspect ratio, and the surroundings of the film.