Asymptotics of surface-plasmon redshift saturation at subnanometric separations

Many promising nanophotonics endeavors hinge upon the unique plasmonic properties of nanometallic structures with narrow nonmetallic gaps, which support superconcentrated bonding modes that singularly redshift with decreasing separations. In this Rapid Communication, we present a descriptive physical picture, complemented by elementary asymptotic formulas, of a nonlocal mechanism for plasmon redshift saturation at subnanometric gap widths. Thus, by considering the electron-charge and field distributions in the close vicinity of the metal-vacuum interface, we show that nonlocality is asymptotically manifested as an effective potential discontinuity. For bonding modes in the near-contact limit, the latter discontinuity is shown to be effectively equivalent to a widening of the gap. As a consequence, the resonance-frequency near-contact asymptotics are a renormalization of the corresponding local ones. Specifically, the renormalization furnishes an asymptotic plasmon-frequency lower bound that scales with the 1/4 power of the Fermi wavelength. We demonstrate these remarkable features in the prototypical cases of nanowire and nanosphere dimers, showing agreement between our elementary expressions and previously reported numerical computations.