COLLISIONLESS DAMPING OF SURFACE-PLASMONS

The spectrum and the collisionless damping of surface electromagnetic waves in a conducting medium bordering a dielectric (or a metal) are o btained for a case of an arbitrary spatial dispersion. The both, quant um and classical, approximations are considered. It is shown that the spatial dispersion of the dielectric plasma constant changes the spect rum, collisionless damping and penetration depth of the surface wave. As the conduction electrons are scattered by the wave potential, in ad dition to the Landau damping, the nonresonant collionsionless damping takes place that associated with the charged particles moving along no rmal to boundary. This damping may be of the same order of magnitude o r more than the Landau damping.