Bulk plasmons in elemental metals
Abstract
The spectral properties, momentum dispersion, and broadening of bulk plasmonic excitations of 26 elemental metals are studied from first principles calculations in the random-phase approximation. Spectral band structures are constructed from the resulting momentum- and frequency-dependent inverse dielectric function. We develop an effective analytical representation of the main collective excitations in the dielectric response, extending our earlier model based on multipole-Pad\'e approximants (MPAs) to incorporate both momentum and frequency dependence [MPA()]. With this representation, we identify plasmonic quasiparticle dispersions exhibiting complex features, including non-parabolic energy and intensity dispersions, discontinuities due to anisotropy, and overlapping effects that lead to band crossings and anti-crossings. Comparing with available experimental data, mainly in the optical limit, we find good agreement with the computed spectra. The results for elemental metals and their effective MPA() representation establish a reference point that can guide both fundamental studies and practical applications in plasmonics and spectroscopy.
Cite
@article{arxiv.2510.07261,
title = {Bulk plasmons in elemental metals},
author = {Dario A. Leon and Claudia Cardoso and Kristian Berland},
journal= {arXiv preprint arXiv:2510.07261},
year = {2026}
}