Numerical simulation of a coupled system of Maxwell equations and a gas dynamic model

Abstract: It is known that both linear and nonlinear optical phenomena can be produced when the plasmon in metallic nanostructures are excited by the external electromagnetic waves. In this work, a coupled system of Maxwell equations and a gas dynamic model including a quantum pressure term is employed to simulate the plasmon dynamics of free electron fluid in different metallic nanostructures using a discontinuous Galerkin method in two dimensions. Numerical benchmarks demonstrate that the proposed numerical method can simulate both the high order harmonic generation and the nonlocal effect from metallic nanostructures. Based on the switch-on-and-off investigation, we can conclude that the quantum pressure term in gas dynamics is responsible for the bulk plasmon resonance. In addition, for the dielectric-filled nano-cavity, a coupled effective polarization model is further adopted to investigate the optical behavior of bound electrons. Concerning the numerical setting in this work, a strengthened influence of bound electrons on the generation of high order harmonic waves has been observed.