Topological magnetoelectric effect as probed by nanoshell plasmonic modes

Abstract

Axion electrodynamics is applied to study the response of a plasmonic nanoshell with a core made of topological insulator (TI) materials. The electric polarizability of such a system is calculated in the long wavelength limit via the introduction of two scalar potentials satisfying the various appropriate boundary conditions. Our focus is on the topological magneto-electric effect (TME) as manifested in the coupled plasmonic resonances of the nanoshell. It is found that for a TI with broken time-reversal symmetry, such TME will lead to observable red-shifts in the coupled plasmonic modes, with more significant manifestation of such shifts for the bonding modes of a metallic nanoshell. It is speculated that such universal red-shift could be a manifestation of the fundamental dual symmetry as generalized for axion electrodynamics. Keywords: Surface plasmons, Axion electrodynamics, Topological insulator, Nanoshells