Introduction to Electrodynamics of Metals

There is a variety of excellent books on electrodynamics of contin-

uous media, including metals (Landau and Lifshitz, 1960; Jackson,

1975). Nevertheless, in this chapter we present fundamental facts of

this area for the readers’ convenience. We will begin with Maxwell’s

equations for continuous media, and then we will refer to main

facts of the Drude-Sommerfeld theory of metals (Drude, 1900;

Sommerfeld and Bethe, 1933; Ashcroft and Mermin, 1976). In the

conclusion of the chapter, we will demonstrate that propagation of

electromagnetic waves-bulk plasmons-is possible in metals, and

then we will discuss their properties.