Resonant electron–plasmon interactions in drifting electron gas

Abstract

In this paper we investigate the resonant electron-plasmon interactions in a drifting electron gas of arbitrary degeneracy. The kinetic corrected quantum hydrodyanmic model is transformed into the effective Schr\"{o}dinger-Poisson model and driven coupled pseudoforce system is obtained via the separation of variables from the appropriately linearized system. It is remarked that in the low phase-speed kinetic regime the characteristic particle-like plasmon branch is profoundly affected by this correction which is a function of the electron number density and temperature. We also present an alternative explanation of the quantum wave-particle duality as a direct consequence of resonant electron-plasmon interaction (electron murmuration). In this picture drifting electrons are resonantly scattered by spatial electrostatic energy distribution, characterizing them by the de Broglie's oscillations. The phase-shift and amplitude of excitations in damped driven pseudoforce system is derived and their variations in terms of normalized chemical potential and electron temperature is studied. In particular we investigate the kinetic correction effect on energy dispersion relation in the electron gas in detail. It is revealed that only the low phase-speed branch of the dispersion curve is significantly affected by the kinetic correction. It is also found that increase in the electron number density leads to increase in effective mass and consequently decrease in electron mobility while the increase in the electron temperature has the converse effect. The kinetic correction also significantly lowers the plasmon conduction band. Current model may be further elaborated to investigate the beam-plasmon interaction and energy exchange in multispecies quantum plasmas.