Time-domain analysis of surface-plasmon-polariton propagation in Ag nano-films using a generalized polarization approach

A time-domain analysis of the propagation properties of surface-plasmon-polaritons (SPP) in Silver nanostructures is presented. The analysis is based on a simulation algorithm that unifies the formulation of different dispersion models and multi-pole relations into one form. The main objective of this work is to perform a comparative analysis between different dispersion models used for Silver, including Debye, Drude and multi-pole Lorentz-Drude models. The quantities that are used in the comparison are the SPP propagation length and propagation speed. Experimental results reported in literature are used to support the conclusions.