Cooperative emission of light by an ensemble of dipoles near a metal nanostucture: The plasmonic Dicke effect

We identify a new mechanism for cooperative emission of light by an ensemble of N dipoles near a metal nanostructure supporting a surface plasmon.The cross-talk between emitters due to virtual plasmon exchange leads to a formation of three plasmonic super-radiant modes whose radiative decay rates scales with N, while the total radiated energy is thrice that of a single emitter. Our numerical simulations indicate that the plasmonic Dicke effect survives non-radiative losses in the metal.