Giant Surface-Plasmon-Induced Drag Effect in Metal Nanowires

Here, for the first time we predict a giant surface-plasmon-induced drag-effect rectification (SPIDER), which exists under conditions of the extreme nanoplasmonic confinement. In nanowires, this giant SPIDER generates rectified THz potential differences up to 10 V and extremely strong electric fields up to similar to 10(5)-10(6) V/cm. The giant SPIDER is an ultrafast effect whose bandwidth for nanometric wires is similar to 20 THz. It opens up a new field of ultraintense THz nanooptics with wide potential applications in nanotechnology and nanoscience, including microelectronics, nanoplasmonics, and biomedicine.