Light-matter interaction in finite-size plasma systems

It is well known that electromagnetic waves with frequencies below the plasma frequency cannot propagate inside an electron plasma. For plasmas with infinite extensions, this property can be mathematically described by a Bogoliubov transformation of the photonic operators. More generally, the presence of finite-size electron plasmas such as laser-induced atmospheric light strings or metallic nano structures including metamaterials leads to a modification of the light-matter interaction. It is shown how this geometric property can be fully accounted for with the help of adapted mode functions used for the quantization of the electromagnetic field. In addition to the analytical derivations, numerical results for luminescence spectra out of quasi-two-dimensional, planar plasma sheets are presented.