Dynamical Casimir effect for surface plasmon polaritons

•The theory of dynamical Casimir effect (DCE) in the metal–dielectric interface excited by a monochromatic wave is proposed.•It is shown that the field enhancement associated with surface plasmon polaritons strongly enhances the yield of the DCE.•The numerical calculations of the enhancement factor are made.•The scheme of experimental setup to observe the DCE in the metal–dielectric interface is proposed.•Additional methods to enhance the DCE in the metal–dielectric interface are discussed.

The emission of photon pairs by a metal–dielectric interface placed between the mirrors of the resonator and excited by a plane wave is considered. The excitation causes oscillations in time of the optical length of surface plasmon polaritons in the interface. This leads to the dynamical Casimir effect – the generation of pairs of surface plasmon polariton quanta, which transfer to photons outside the interface. In the case of a properly chosen interface, the yield of two-photon emission may exceed that of the usual spontaneous parametric down-conversion.